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WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 



(j^^pUC^AlO) Mo CO' 




COURT OF THE GREAT BIOGUL.- {After an engraving of the tijne.) 



1. Guard of Omrahs. — 2. Guard of the Derani Khas. — 3. Cavalry guard. — 4. Elephant of 
the Padichah. — 5 and 6. Balustrades of silver. — 7. Tent called the Aspek. — 8. The Omrahs. 
— 9. The imperial throne. — 10. Gallery of the Am-Khana. — 11. Park of the Gladiators. — 
12, 13, and 14. The Citadel. 

^Frontispiece. 



WARRIORS OF THE 
CRESCENT 



BY THE LATE 

W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS 

AUTHOR OF A BOOK OF EARNEST LIVES 
BATTLE STORIES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY, ETC. 




NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1892 







.As. \8G2 /^'' 

^T OF s:!^."--^ 



:p 



<^^ 



Authorized Edition. 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK I. 

THE SULTANS OF GHAZNL 
CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

MAHMUD THE SULTAN ...... 3 

CHAPTER IL 

A PAGEANT OF KINGS , . . , . ^ %2 

CHAPTER HI. 

A TYRANT AND A SCHOLAR ..... 8o 

CHAPTER IV. 

TIMUR THE TARTAR . 8o 



vi CONTENTS. 

BOOK II. 

THE GREAT MOGULS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR 



PAGE 

THE lion" . . • 139 



CHAPTER II. 

HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE GREAT MOGULS . 1 68 



CHAPTER III. 

AKBAR THE GREAT . 



, 182 



CHAPTER IV. 

JAHANGER, THE CONQUEROR OF THE WORLD . .221 

CHAPTER V. 

SHAH JAHAN, ** THE TRUE STAR OF THE FAITH " . 25° 

CHAPTER VI. 

AURANGZIB, OR ALAMGIR, "THE CONQUEROR OF THE 

UNIVERSE" ^4 



BOOK I. 
THE SULTANS OF GHAZNI. 



CHAPTER I. 

MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 

/^~\NE thousand years after the birth of Christ 
^^^ there reigned, in .the eastern provinces of the 
land of Iran, a great prince named Mahmud. 

He was the son of Subuktigin, a prince who, from 
the low condition of a slave, had raised himself, by 
his courage and conduct, to the throne of Ghazni. 
It was pretended that this man, in his early years 
of servitude, had received an intimation from Heaven 
of future greatness. One day, when enjoying the 
pleasures of the chase, and riding fast and far over 
hill and dale, he succeeded in hunting down a fawn, 
and was carrying off his prize when he saw that the 
dam followed him with painful signs of distress. His 
heart was touched ; and he released the trembling 
little captive — to be rewarded by the evident grati- 
tude of the mother, who frequently turned and fixed 



4 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

her gaze upon him as she trotted back to the forest 
with her offspring. That night the prophet appeared 
to Subuktigin in a dream, and informed him that 
in recompense of his humanity, he would be raised 
to rule over a kingdom, adding, that he must then 
display the like humanity towards his fellow-men. 

It was in Subuktigin's reign that the first collision 
occurred on the north-west frontier of India between 
the Moslems and the Hindus. Infuriated by the 
constant forays of the Afghan tribes, Jaipal, the Hindu 
chief of Lahore, marched through the wild mountain 
passes to besiege Ghazni. He was encountered and 
defeated by Subuktigin, who pressed the pursuit with 
such ardour that he overtook the Hindus before they 
gained the mountains, and compelled Jaipal to ransom 
himself and his army for fifty elephants and a sum 
of one million dirhams (or about ;^2 5,000). Jaipal, 
on his return to Lahore, held a council, and explained 
to his nobles and priests the pledge he had given. 
Said a Brahman on his right, "And wouldst thou 
degrade thyself by paying ransom to a barbarian 
prince ? " Said a noble on his left, " Greater the 
degradation to break thy plighted word ! " Unfortu- 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 5 

nately for himself, Jaipal listened to the Brahman, 
and sent neither elephants nor money. Subuktigin 
resolved to fetch them, and, followed by a shining 
array of cavalry, broke through the passes, and swept 
the land of the Five Rivers with fire and sword. 
Jaipal drew forth his host to meet him — a host so 
immense that, to Subuktigin, looking down upon it 
from the crest of a high hill, it seemed boundless in 
extent like the ocean, and in number Hke the ants 
or locusts of the desert. But the old warrior was in 
no wise dismayed : he felt himself like a wolf (says 
the historian) about to attack a flock of sheep. He 
knew the slow and languid Hindus were no fit 
adversaries for his stern and irresistible horsemen ; 
and detecting a weak point in their line of battle, 
he hurled against it in swift succession squadrons 
of five hundred men, and as soon as a gap was made 
charged with his entire force, drove through the 
Hindu masses, and put them to flight with terrible 
carnage. Then he placed one of his lieutenants in 
charge of Peshawar, and returned in triumph to Ghazni. 
Such was Subuktigin, the father and predecessor 
of the great M ah mud. 



6 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Mahmud was a man of great capacity, of lofty 
ambition, and inflexible will. Nature had endowed 
him with extraordinary vigour of mind and body, 
which he sustained by temperance and frequent 
exercise. He was not comely in person, however, 
for he was deeply marked with the small-pox, — a 
calamity which he openly regretted ; " for the sight 
of a king," he said, "should brighten the eyes of 
those who look upon him, whereas Nature has treated 
me so unkindly that my appearance is positively 
forbidding." He possessed all the qualifications of a 
successful prince and ruler ; and during his reign the 
boundaries of the Ghaznevide kingdom were extended 
from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the 
Indus. 

The most prominent event in his career was the 
" holy war," as he entitled it, which he waged against 
the followers of Brahma, who, as worshippers of 
idols, were especially hateful to the Muhammadan, 
the believer in one God, " not made with hands." 
Having spent four years in strengthening and con- 
firming his sway to the west of the snow-capped 
peaks and pinnacles of the Hindu Kush, he entered 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 7 

upon his scheme of Indian conquest, and carried it 
out with the energy and persistency which were such 
marked features of his character. It is said that he 
invaded India no fewer than seventeen times. He 
spent thirteen campaigns in subduing the Punjab, 
one in overrunning the beautiful valley of Kashmir, 
and one each was directed against the great fortified 
cities of Kanauj, Gwalior, and Somnath. " A 
volume," says the historian Gibbon, " would scarcely 
suffice to recapitulate the battles and sieges of his 
various expeditions. Never was the Muhammadan 
hero dismayed by the inclemency of the seasons, the 
height of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers, the 
barrenness of the desert, the multitude of the enemy, 
or the formidable array of elephants of war. The 
Sultan of Ghazni surpassed the limits of the conquests 
of Alexander ; after a march of three months over 
the hills of Kashmir and Tibet, he reached the 
famous city of Kanauj, on the Upper Ganges ; and, 
in a naval combat on one of the branches of the 
Indus, he fought and vanquished four thousand boats 
of the natives. Delhi, Lahore and Multan were com^ 
pel led to open their gates ; the fertile kingdom of 



8 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Guzarat attracted his ambition and tempted his stay ; 
and his avarice indulged the fruitless project of dis- 
covering the golden and aromatic isles of the Southern 
Ocean. On the payment of a tribute, the Rajas 
preserved their dominions ; the people, their lives 
and fortunes ; but to the religion of Hindustan the 
zealous Mussulman was cruel and inexorable ; many 
hundred temples, or pagodas, were levelled with the 
ground ; many thousand idols were demolished ; and 
the servants of the Prophet were stimulated and 
rewarded by the precious materials of which they 
were composed." 

It would weary the reader, and prove very un- 
profitable, if I told in detail the story of each of those 
seventeen campaigns. Let us confine ourselves to 
such of the principal incidents as may illustrate the 
character of Mahmud or the manners and habits 
and peculiarities of the peoples and the times. 

His first campaign brought death and ruin to 
his father's old antagonist, Jaipal, ruler of Lahore. In 
a decisive battle, Jaipal and fifteen of his chiefs were 
taken prisoners. They were admitted to ransom ; 
and the sums they paid poured a Pactolus of gold 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 9 

into the treasury of Ghazni. As for the unfortunate 
Jaipal, having been twice defeated, he was pro- 
nounced, according to Hindu custom, unworthy to 
reign ; and, putting on his royal robes, he solemnly 
transferred his sceptre to his son, mounted a gorgeous 
tuneral pile — composed of aromatic and fragrant 
woods — and passed away in a chariot of fire (looi). 
In the campaign of 1004 Mahmud invaded the 
province of Multan and laid siege to a town called 
Bhutia, which for three days successfully resisted 
the furious attacks of the Muhammadans. Their 
losses were so heavy that some among them lost 
heart, and began to talk of retreat. The Sultan, 
however, with his usual iron resolution, declared that 
he would lead the next attack in person — " To-day," 
he exclaimed, " I will conquer or die ! " In order to 
arouse the religious ardour of his soldiers, he appeared 
on the field in a robe of white, and turning towards 
Mecca, the sacred city of Islam, prostrated himself on 
the ground in the face of the whole army. Intense 
silence prevailed. In two or three minutes he sprang 
to his feet, and, his countenance flushed with triumph, 
cried aloud, — " Advance ! advance ! my prayers have 



10 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

found favour with God ! " And believing themselves 
favoured by Heaven, the warriors of the Crescent 
rushed forward with a tremendous shout — like the 
roar of ocean — and the Hindus, terror-stricken by 
their victorious aspect, broke in confusion^ and fled. 

A SUCCESSION OF VICTORIES. 

When he entered upon his sixth campaign, in 1008, 
he found himself confronted by a league of the Hindu 
princes under Anangpal, son and heir of Jaipal. So 
strong a spirit of patriotism had been awakened that 
the Hindu ladies, to raise funds for the maintenance 
of the army, melted down their ornaments of gold 
and silver ; while the females of the lower orders, to 
help in the same cause, toiled day and night at the 
spinning-wheel The united forces of the confederate 
chiefs formed such a host that even Mahmud hesitated 
to commit his fortune to a pitched battle, and he 
began to entrench himself strongly in the neighbour- 
hood of Peshawar. He considered that if he were 
attacked his position would enable him to make a 
successful defence ; while he saw that if the Hindus 
refrained from any movement, their irregular and 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. II 

undisciplined masses would break up and melt away 
like masses of snow. The Hindus rushed forward in 
furious onset, and at first the warriors of the Crescent 
suffered severely ; for thirty thousand Ghakkars, bare- 
headed, bare-footed, and armed with various deadly 
weapons, broke through their lines, and committed 
such havoc that in a few minutes the ground was 
strewn with the dead and dying. Mahmud, silent 
and apparently impassive, made no sign. At length, 
Anangpal's colossal elephant, terrified by the inces- 
sant storm of arrows and fire-balls, swerved aside, 
and began to hurry his rider off the field of action. 
The Hindus, thinking that their monarch was aban- 
doning them, lost heart, and fell back ; immediately 
Mahmud ordered his warriors to charge, which they 
did with so much impetuosity that the Hindus broke 
and fled. Then the Mussulmans waved their scimi- 
tars in triumph and rode down the fugitives with 
terrible ferocity, the number of the slain on this lost 
battle-field being very great. 

Mahmud proceeded to gather up the spoils which 
this victory placed at his disposal. He was influ- 
enced, perhaps, as much by religious zeal as by 



12 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

avarice in his advance upon the fortress-temple of 
Nagarkot (now known as Kangra), which was equally 
famous for its opulence and its sanctity, the latter 
being attested by a mysterious flame which sprang 
spontaneously from the earth. The garrison of the 
fort had been withdrawn to take part in the recent 
battle ; and the Sultan, on his approach, was met by 
a crowd of suppliant priests, who, with wild gestures 
and strange cries, implored his compassion. He 
spared their lives, but carried off their treasures — 
which, perhaps, they valued more than their lives, 
— treasures consisting of 700,000 dinars of gold, 700 
maunds of gold and silver plate, 200 maunds of 
pure gold in ingots, 2,000 maunds of unwrought 
silver, and 20 maunds of pearls, rubies, diamonds and 
corals. As the dinar was worth nine shillings and 
the maund weighed eighty pounds, it is probably true 
that, as Ferishta says, so vast a spoil was never 
before poured into the treasury of any prince on 
earth. 

The victor, on his return to Ghazni, held a three- 
days' festival. The neighbouring plain was crowded 
with costly pavilions and tents for the accommoda- 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 1 3 

tion of his guests. On thrones and tables of gold 
and silver were displayed his trophies,— the scene 
surpassing anything ever conceived by the fertile 
imagination of Oriental poets and tale-tellers. Dainty 
viands and cool delicious beverages were supplied 
without stint or cost to thousands and tens of thou- 
sands of spectators ; and while magnificent presents 
were bestowed on the warriors who had earned them 
by their valiant deeds, ,the poor were made happy 
with generous alms. 

In 1017, having collected an army of 100,000 foot 
and 20,000 horse, the Sultan prepared to cross the 
frontier of the Punjab and descend the valley of the 
Ganges into India. From Peshawar he proceeded 
in the shadow of the mountains until he struck the 
Jumna ; crossing that noble stream, he wheeled 
southward, and with the clash of cymbals and the 
pomp of silken banners startled out of its propriety 
the great city of Kanauj, the raja of which, by right 
of its wealth and populousness, took precedence of 
all other Hindu Rajas. On the appearance of Mah- 
mud, he went forth with his family, and prostrated 
himself with a humility so absolute and abject tliat 



14 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

it propitiated the mighty Sultan, and he was induced 
to spare the city. Muttra, against which he next 
advanced, met with no such good fortune. The 
spectacle of this famous sanctuary of Buddhism, with 
the white walls and domes of its many monasteries 
and temples rising high above the shining waters of 
the Jumna, stimulated the Sultan's fanaticism, and he 
abandoned it to the plunder and rapine of his soldiery, 
who for twenty days committed every atrocity 
which the lust and cruelty of man can devise under 
the cover of religious zeal. While this human 
tempest raged, and the air resounded with the shrieks 
of outraged women, the cries of tortured children, and 
the groans of the dying, Mahmud calmly contem- 
plated the splendour of the numerous buildings, and 
reflected on the immense sums which their erection 
must have cost. In a letter addressed to his lieu- 
tenant at Ghazni he said : — " Here are a thousand 
edifices as stable as the faith of the faithful, most of 
them of marble ; besides innumerable temples. It 
is not probable that this city has attained to its 
present condition but by the expenditure of many 
millions of dinars ; nor could such another be con- 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 1 5 

structed in a lesser period of time than two cen- 
turies." * 

Mahmud's last campaign, in the year 1024, was 
directed against the famous temple of Somnath, in 
Guzarat, near the shore of the Arabian Sea. The 
march from Ghazni lay across a sandy desert, and 
taxed to the utmost the conduct of the commander 
and the endurance of his soldiers ; but it was ac- 
complished without disaster ; and the army safely 
emerged upon the open, sunny plains round about 
Ajmere. There, the Hindus were wholly unprepared 
for resistance. The Sultan's designs against Somnath 
were known ; but it had never been suspected that 
he would advance by a route so difficult and danger- 
ous. Ajmere fell into his hands without a struggle, 
and was given up to plunder. Entering Guzarat, he 
passed by its capital, Anhalwara, and moved rapidly 
against the sacred city, which was as venerable and 
precious to the Hindu as Mecca to the Muhammadan. 

* It is pretended that the city-walls were one hundred miles 
in circuit, that the population included 30,000 betel-vendors and 
60,000 singers and musicians ; and that its army comprised 
80,000 men in armour, 300,000 mail-clad horsemen, 300,000 
infantry, and 200,000 archers and battle-axes. 



l6 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

It stood upon a narrow windy promontory, which 
a fortified isthmus connected with the mainland. On 
approaching it, the Sultan was met by a herald, who 
defied him in the name of the god Krishna, and 
threatened him with destruction. His reply was a 
storm of arrows, which drove from their ramparts the 
Hindu warriors, and sent them to kneel before their 
god, piteously soliciting its assistance. When the 
Muhammadans, pressing the attack, with exultant 
shouts of " Allah Akbar ! " had almost effected an 
entrance, the Hindus, encouraged by their act of 
devotion, suddenly appeared in the breach, and fought 
with a desperate energy which baffled the assailants. 
On the second day the attack was renewed, and 
again repulsed. On the third, a vast army, consisting 
of the combined forces of several neighbouring rajas, 
advanced to the relief of the beleaguered city, com- 
pelling Mahmud to draw off his troops to meet this 
new foe. The contest was bitter and protracted ; 
and was going against the Muhammadans, until 
Mahmud, repeating the device which on a former 
field had proved successful, prostrated himself on the 
ground in the presence of his followers ; and then, 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 17 

exclaiming that Allah, in answer to his prayers, had 
promised him victory, leaped on his horse, and with 
a loud shout of defiance dashed into the thickest of 
the battle. The fervour of his fighting-men was 
rekindled by this heroic example of their chief : they 
renewed the charge v/ith a fury which would not be 
denied ; the victory was complete. Then the Hindu 
garrison, leaving behind them five thousand dead, 
embarked on board their boats and sailed away to 
some haven of safety. 

The temple, seated on the topmost height of the 
breezy headland, was the most magnificent in India. 
The spacious interior was lighted by a great lamp 
of gold, which hung suspended from the centre of the 
roof by a golden chain, and was supported by half 
a hundred columns, richly wrought, and profusely 
encrusted with precious stones. The revenue of two 
thousand villages was appropriated to its mainte- 
nance. Two thousand Brahmans were consecrated 
to the service of its deity, whose image they washed, 
night and morning, in sacred water brought from 
the great river, a distance of one thousand miles. 
The subordinate ministrants included three hundred 



1 8 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

musicians, as many barbers, and five hundred dancing 
girls, chosen for their birth and beauty. Mahmud 
strode into the holy place where rested, says the 
legend, the image of Krishna, With his heavy iron 
mace he aimed a blow at its head. The trembling 
Brahmans, it is pretended, offered ten millions sterling 
for its ransom ; and his wisest counsellors advised 
him to accept the splendid bribe, on the ground 
that the destruction of their idol would not soften the 
hearts of the Gentors, while the money would carry 
relief to thousands of true believers. " Your reasons," 
exclaimed the Sultan, " are strong and specious ; but 
I will be remembered as the image-breaker, and not 
as the image-vendor ! " So saying, the Iconoclast 
clove the figure open with his mace, and from its 
ample belly poured forth such a torrent of jewels as 
fully explained the anxiety of the Brahmans for its 
preservation. This story of the idol and its fate 
travelled to Baghdad ; and the khalif bestowed upon 
the pious (and lucky) image-breaker the title of 
" Guardian of the Faith and Fortune of Muhammad." 
But, alas ! there is not a word of truth in this 
picturesque fable, which was invented long after 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 19 

Mahmud's death. There was no jewelled image at 
Somnath ; nothing but a linga, or phallic emblem of 
stone, one of twelve such emblems erected in various 
parts of India. Mahmud carried it away in four 
pieces ; one of which he set up in the Mosque at 
Ghazni, and another at his palace-gate ; a third he 
sent to Mecca, and a fourth to Medina. He also 
carried away the temple-gates, made of sandal-wood 
and curiously carved, which were afterwards among 
the trophies piled upon his tomb. 

Mahmud returned to Anhalwara, which for a time 
he thought of adopting for a new capital. Eventually 
he contented himself with setting up a puppet raja 
in Guzarat ; one on whose complete submission he 
believed he could rely. Another scion of the old 
stock pressed his claims so pertinaciously that, to 
prevent a disputed succession, he threw him into 
prison. When Mahmud was leaving Guzarat, the 
new raja earnestly begged for the custody of his 
rival, which, with some reluctance, the Sultan yielded, 
on condition that no blood should be shed. The 
raja, to keep his promise to the letter while he grati- 
fied his vengeance, caused a pit to be dug under his 



20 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

throne, in which he immured his prisoner alive ; 
but revolutions come swiftly in Oriental countries ; 
and the raja, suddenly deposed, was buried in the 
dungeon which he had intended for his victim* 

In re-crossing the sandy desert at the head of 
the Arabian Sea, Mahmud's army suffered terribly. 
He had engaged Hindu guides, who for three days 
and nights kept the soldiers wandering in a region 
destitute of water and forage, until numbers perished 
from heat and thirst. Suspecting that his guides had 
wilfully led him astray, he put them to the torture, 
and extracted a confession that they were priests of 
Somnath, who had hoped, by the destruction of the 
army, to secure a noble revenge for the desecration 
of his temple. 

The actual result of Mahmud's seventeen invasions 
and twenty-five years' fighting, with their w^holesale 
loss of human life, was the annexation of the Punjab 
to the Ghazni kingdom. He made no attempt to 
establish his rule over all India : his expeditions 
beyond the Indus were simply fanatical adventures — 

* This striking story is told by D'Herbelet, in the Biblio^ 
thcque Orientale, from the original sources. 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 21 

"the adventures of a religious knight-errant" (with 
a thirst for gold) — directed against some celebrated 
idol-shrine or wealthy temple-city. 

Mahmud died at Ghazni on the 29th of April, 
1030, in the sixty-third year of his age and the thirty- 
third of his reign. His strong and remarkable 
individuality made a deep impression on his contem- 
poraries ; and for generations the name of Mahmud 
of Ghazni carried as much terror to the Hindus as 
that of Marlbrook (or Marlborough) to the ears of the 
peasantry of France, seven centuries after. Numerous 
stories have been handed down to us in illustration 
of his devotion, his thrift, and his courage. One day 
a poor woman, who had obtained admission to his 
presence, complained that her son had been murdered 
by robbers in a remote desert of Irak. The Sultan 
expressed his regret, and remarked that it was diffi- 
cult to prevent such misfortunes at so great a distance 
from the seat of government. The crone's reply was 
swift and sharp : " Keep no more territory than you 
can govern rightly." Mahmud was too wise and 
too magnanimous not to acknowledge the force of 
the rebuke : he rewarded the wise old woman 



22 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

liberally, and ordered soldiers to be stationed for 
the security of the caravans that crossed the Irak 
wilderness. 

A pathetic incident reveals to us the rigid justice 
and magnanimity of this remarkable man. He was 
sitting in his divan one day when an unhappy 
petitioner, with haggard face and tearful eyes, sud- 
denly threw himself on his knees before him, and 
sighed and stammered forth a tale of woe. " A 
soldier," he exclaimed, " has driven me from my 
house and home — a fiend — one of thy officers— 

.... he comes, the abhorred, 
And takes possession of my house, my board, 
My bed. I have two daughters and a wife : 
And the wild villain comes, and makes me mad with life.'* 

The Sultan bade him be still. " Inform me of the 
man's next visit, and I myself will judge and punish 
him." Three days later the complainant reappeared, 
his face more shrunken than before, his eyes red with 
weeping. Then Mahmud called his guards, followed 
his guide, surrounded the house, and, causing all the 
torches to be extinguished, arrested the criminal, and 
immediately pronounced the doom of death upon 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 23 

him. When the sentence had been executed, and the 
torches re-lighted, Mahmud fell prostrate in prayer : 
then, rising from the ground, demanded some food, 
of which he partook with eagerness. 

The poor man, whose injuries had so promptly 
and sternly been avenged, stared in astonishment 
and curiosity at his sovereign's strange proceedings, 
and at length ventured humbly to inquire what was 
the motive and the meaning of it 

" The Sultan said, with a benignant eye, 

' Since first I saw thee come, and heard thy cry, 
I could not rid me of the dread, that one 
By whom such daring villanies were done 
Must be some lord of mine — aye, e'en, perhaps, a son. 
Whoe'er he was, I knew my task ; but feared 
A father's heart, in case the worst appeared. 
For this I had the light put out ; but when 
I saw the face, and found a stranger slain, 
I knelt and thanked the Sovereign Arbier, 
Whose work I had performed through pain and fear ; 
And then I rose, and was refreshed with food. 
The first time since thy voice had marred my solitude.'"* 

Mahmud having declared war against the sovereign 
of Persian Irak, the Sultana-mother made an appeal 
to his generosity. " During my husband's life," she 

* Leigh Hunt. 



24 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

wrote, " I was ever apprehensive of your ambition, 
for he was a prince and a soldier worthy of your 
arms. He is now no more ; his sceptre has passed 
into the hands of a woman and a child, and you 
dare not attack their weakness. How inglorious, 
if you conquered us ! how shameful, if you were 
defeated ! And yet the issue of battle is in the 
hand of the Almighty." Mahmud replied that he 
would delay his invasion until her son had attained 
to manhood. 

The worst vice ascribed to Mahmud is avarice. It 
was one which, at all events, he had ample oppor- 
tunities of gratifying ; though the Oriental tales of 
his stores of gold and of gems of enormous size are 
evident exaggerations. In the last years of his life 
he felt deeply the transitoriness of his hold upon 
the treasures he had amassed with so much labour. 
When we read of his lonely wanderings through 
the chambers of the treasury at Ghazni, and of his 
bursting into tears at the thought that he must so 
soon part with them for ever, we are reminded of 
Cardinal Mazarin, who, just before his death, was 
seen standing before the masterpieces in his picture- 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 2$ 

gallery, and sighing that he must leave them behind 
him. 

Mahmud was a liberal patron of poets and a 
genuine lover of poetry. The fame of Ferdusi, the 
great Persian minstrel, having reached him, he sent 
him a flattering invitation to his capital. Taking 
with him the opening cantos of his Shah Nainah, 
or Book of Kings, he reached Ghazni one day as 
the twilight shadows were falling, and found his way 
into a garden, where the poet Ansari, and some 
brother poets and friends, were engaged in converse. 
Ferdusi saluted them ; and they, not knowing who 
he was, proposed to rid themselves of his intrusion 
by extemporising three verses of a quatrain, of which 
he was to compose the finish. He performed the 
task in such a way as to convince them of his right 
to a place in their harmonious fraternity. The 
episode of " Rustan and Isfurdiar," from his great 
poem, was read to the Sultan, who, as well as all 
who heard it, was captivated by its melodious verse 
and graceful imagery. He was admitted to an 
interview with Mahmud, who promised him a dirham 
— meaning a dirham of gold — for each verse in the 



26 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

SJiah-Naniah on its completion. But having failed 
to propitiate the wazir, the latter became his enemy, 
and when the immortal epic was finished, after thirty 
years of labour, persuaded the Sultan to pay for it 
in silver dirhanis. 

Irritated at this evasion, Ferdusi distributed the 
money between the bearer, the owner of the bath 
where he was making his ablutions at the time, and 
the vendor of a beverage called fillan. This insult, 
together with the wazir's assertion that Ferdusi was 
an infidel, so angered the Sultan, that he condemned 
the poet to be trampled to death under the feet of 
elephants, and when, at Ferdusi's earnest prayer, he 
recalled this terrible sentence, ordered him instantly 
to leave his kingdom. Ferdusi, before departing, 
repaired to Ayaz, Mahmud's favourite Sultana, and 
placing in her hand a sealed packet, requested her 
to hand it to the Sultan on a day he named. He 
then set out, was received very cordially by the 
prince of Kohistan, who gave him 8o,coo dirhanis, 
and helped him on his journey ; and eventually 
he reached Baghdad, where he purposed to spend 
the remainder of his life, revising his magnum opus, 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 27 

the Shah Ntwiah. Meanwhile, Mahmud had 
received the sealed packet, which proved to contain 
a bitter invective against him, reproaching him with 
his manners and his low birth. The wrathful Sultan 
instantly despatched an angry letter to the Khalif, 
demanding the person of the satirist, and threatening 
to lay Baghdad waste wdth fire and sword. But 
with time came wiser counsels and gentler thoughts. 
He recalled the charming conversation, the brilliant 
wit and exquisite fancy of the great poet, who, for so 
many years, had been the glory of his court. He 
discovered, moreover, that he had been deceived by 
false reports ; and, his better nature prevailing, he 
sent to Ferdusi his entire forgiveness : which, as the 
poet, in allusion to the Sultan's low birth, had said 
that " a raven could breed nothing but a raven," was 
an act of some magnanimity. But, forgetting the 
satirist, he remembered only the poet. Ferdusi, an 
old man and in broken health, hastened back to Tus, 
his birthplace, and continued to occupy himself in 
polishing his immortal verse. To make full amends 
for his harsh treatment, the Sultan sent him a gift 
of 100,000 dirhams. Unfortunately, it was too 



28 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

late. Passing through the streets of Tus one day, 
the aged poet heard a child singing one of his 
early compositions, which recalled to his memory 
all his sufferings with such pathetic force that he 
swooned away, and being carried to his house, almost 
immediately expired. He was then in the 83rd year 
of his age (1020). The Sultan's messengers, with 
the bags of gold, entered one gate of the city, just 
as the poet's bier, with a long procession of mourners, 
went out of the other, to convey his remains to their 
last resting-place.* 

Mahmud was, I think, a man of nobly generous 
temper. Having heard that a citizen of Ghazni was 
very wealthy, he sent for him, reproached him with 
being an idolater and an apostate from the faith of 
Islam. " Nay, O King," replied the man, " I am no 
apostate, but I have great riches : take tliem if thou 
wilt, but do not rob me of my good name as well as 
my money." Far from showing any anger at this 
bold reply, the Sultan gave the citizen a certificate, 
under his own signet, of his perfect orthodoxy. 

* This incident has been taken as the subject of a graceful 
poem, " Firdausi in Exile," by E. W. Gosse. 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 29 

Good Muhammadan as he usually was, he some- 
times broke through the Prophet's ordinance against 
wine, and on one of these occasions cut off the 
sleek tresses of his favourite Sultana. When sober, 
he grieved greatly at his folly, so that none dared 
venture into his presence. Eventually the poet 
Hakim Ali soothed him with a pretty conceit : " On 
this happy day, why grieve that your beloved has 
been deprived of her locks ? Drink and be merry, 
for is not the taper form of the cypress best seen 
when its branches have been pruned ? " Let us hope 
that the shorn beauty was as easily consoled as the 
Sultan, who ordered the poet's mouth to be thrice 
filled with jewels. 

On the whole, however, the impartial historian, 
if he reject the unbounded eulogy of the epitaph, 
written in Persian, which was placed on the con- 
queror's throne, — " When we consider all the virtues of 
this great prince, we can scarcely believe he was born 
as other men," — will pronounce him not unworthy 
of his enduring fame. His eminent actions were 
many, and some of them conduced to the welfare 
of mankind. He was an enlightened patron of the 



30 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

arts and sciences. He founded a University in 
Ghazni, with a vast collection of MSS. in various 
languages, and a museum of natural curiosities. 
For its maintenance he set apart a large sum of 
money, besides establishing a permanent fund for 
allowances to professors and students. He appro- 
priated a sum of nearly ;^ 10,000 a year in pensions 
to learned men. His taste for architecture, whether 
natural or inspired by the glorious structures he 
beheld at Kanauj and Muttra, led him to enrich his 
capital with many handsome buildings. The Mosque 
which he called " The Celestial Bride " was, for 
generations, the wonder of the East. It was built of 
marble and granite, was of such beauty as to strike 
any beholder with admiration, and was furnished 
with sumptuous carpets, with rich candelabra, and 
other ornaments cf gold and silver. When the 
nobles of Ghazni, says Ferishta, saw their monarch's 
architectural triumphs, they vied with one another 
in the magnificence of their private palaces, as well 
as in the public edifices which they raised for the 
embellishment of the city ; so that, in a short time, 
it was ornamented with mosques, porches, fountains. 



MAHMUD THE SULTAN. 3 1 

reservoirs, aqueducts, beyond every city in the 
East. 

He was certainly a great captain. He conducted 
in person seventeen campaigns, and fought thirty 
sieges and battles ; yet did he never besiege a city 
which he did not take, nor fight a battle which he 
did not win. Whilst in the north he kept at bay the 
rising power of the Tartars, he extended his empire 
east, west, and south, ,he seated his sons on the 
thrones of Balka and Ispahan ; he carried the grim 
standard of the Prophet over the dreary table-lands 
of Irak and Tartary, across the Five Rivers of the 
Punjab, through the scorching deserts of Sind, and 
amid the eternal snows of Tibet. 

Three miles south of Ghazni may still be seen the 
cupola which surmounts his grave ; and to this day 
the Muhammadan priests read the Koran over the 
tomb of the great king of the East, Mahmud the 
Sultan. 



CHAPTER II. 

A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 

*T^WO sons were born to Mahmud, — Masaud and 
Mahomed, — the former being the older by 
only a few hours. Mahomed was crafty, resolute, and 
ambitious ; and at an early age intrigued to dis* 
place his brother. In this he was encouraged by 
his father's partiality ; but the old Sultan saw that 
he was no favourite with his nobles and warriors, 
and refrained from altering the succession. 

At the time of Mahmud's death, Masaud was 
residing at Ispahan as governor. Mahomed was 
at Guiyan, whence he immediately marched to 
Ghazni, proclaiming himself king ; and seizing on 
the imperial treasure, he endeavoured to gain sup- 
porters by a profuse distribution of bubio. But 
Masaud's popularity was not to be set aside. The 
young prince had a ready tongue, a winning address, 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 



33 



a generous temper, and enormous physical strength. 
Ferishta says that his iron mace was so heavy, like 
William the Conqueror's sword, that none but himself 
could wield it with one hand ; and that an arrow, 
launched from his bow, would pierce the hide of 
an elephant after passing through the stoutest mail. 
Though aware of his brother's plots, he had never 
cared to circumvent them. On one occasion, he was 
told that the Court Mullah, in his anxiety to please 
an over-partial father, had ventured to read his 
brother's name before his in the Khatba, a prayer 
for the Royal Family. " What matters it ? " he 
replied with a smile : " the world goes to the longest 
sword." 

Even his brother's usurpation did not at first 
provoke him to any violence of action. At the 
head of the household guards, who had remained 
faithful to him, he marched upon Ghazni ; but he 
sent a message to his brother, that he did not wish 
to treat him unjustly, but was prepared to divide 
the empire with him, stipulating, however, that in 
the Khatba his name (at least in his own territories) 
should have precedency. Rejecting this generous 



34 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

ofifer, Mahomed marched out to defend by force what 
he had gained by fraud. But a conspiracy overthrew 
him ; he was seized and cast into prison ; and to 
prevent him from doing further mischief, he was 
deprived of sight — a " fire-pencil," or red-hot needle, 
according to the Eastern custom, being drawn across 
the pupils 

It was not long before Masaud found himself 
involved in a war with the Turkis or Turcomans, a 
wild and martial race, who had carried the desolation 
of their arms as far as Ispahan and the Tigris. 
His omrahs, or counsellors, had warned him from the 
first that they would prove a formidable enemy. 
"At the outset," they said, "these people were a 
swarm of ants ; they have grown into little snakes ; 
and if you do not crush them at once, they will 
develop the venom and acquire the dimensions of 
serpents." It was in 1039 that, several of his 
generals having been defeated, the Sultan resolved 
to take the field in person. He fell in with his 
adversaries at Zendekan, near Merv. "Masaud," 
says the Persian historian, " advanced alone to oppose 
the torrent of gleaming steel, performing such acts 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 35 

of gigantic strength and valour as never king had 
performed before. A handful of his warriors, stimu- 
lated by his words and deeds, and by that innate 
honour which inspires the brave, supported their 
prince so nobly, that, wheresoever they swept with 
fatal swords, their enemies were cut down or retreated 
before them. But just as victory seemed about to 
crown his standard, misfortune did its evil work in 
his rear ; and when Masaud looked round, he per- 
ceived that, with the exception of the division he 
himself commanded, his whole army was devouring 
the pat J IS of fligJit!' 

After a vain attempt to rally his broken ranks, 
he returned to Ghazni, where he was speedily 
entangled in a network of treachery and revolt. 
The army mutinied ; he was deposed ; and his 
brother Mahomed taken out of prison to replace 
him. Mahomed — to his credit be it recorded^did 
not indulge in any bloody revenge, but was content 
to imprison the brother who had deprived him of 
sight, confining him in the castle of Kini without 
any of the pomp and circumstance appropriate to 
his rank. On one occasion, being actually in want 



36 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

of necessaries, he sent for some money to his brother, 
who returned an insulting message and the paltry 
sum of five hundred dirhams. " O wonderful— O 
wonderful stroke of Providence ! " said Masaud, on 
receiving it ; " O cruel reverse of Fate ! Yesterday 
was I not a mighty prince, three thousand camels 
bending under my treasure? And to-day I am forced 
to beg the merest mockery of my wants ! " Borrow- 
ing a thousand dirhams from his attendants, he made 
them a present to the messenger, bidding him carry 
back to his brother the paltry gift with which he had 
mocked at his privation. 

But a blind sovereign was unable to steer the ship 
of the State through the troubled waters of that 
stormy time, and Mahomed gave up his throne in 
favour of his eldest son, Ahmed, a fierce and truculent 
prince, one of whose first acts was to put his imprisoned 
uncle to death. 

A succession of sovereigns followed — a pageant 
of kings — all whose reigns were involved in the lurid 
clouds of war. We may select as one of the most 
notable figures the Sultan Ibrahim (1058), a grave 
and austere prince, who delighted in his religious 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 37 

duties and in the art of caligraphy, in which he be- 
came an adept. He made many very beautiful copies 
of the Koran, some of which are still in existence 
in the mosques of Mecca and Medina. The following 
anecdote justifies, I think, a favourable estimate of 
his character : — One day, seeing a prisoner tottering 
under the burden of a very heavy stone, his pity was 
awakened, and commanding him to set it down, he 
gave him his liberty. The stone lay in the middle of 
the public thoroughfare ; yet so strict was the law 
that none ventured to remove it. But a courtier's 
horse having stumbled over it, petition was made that 
some other resting-place might be allotted to it. " I 
commanded that it should be thrown there," said 
the Sultan, " and there it must remain as a memorial 
of the misfortunes of humanity and of my own pity : 
it is better for a king to be obstinate, even in his 
inadvertences, than to break his royal word." 

The princes of whom I have been speaking all 
belonged to the House of Ghazni, which came to an 
end in 1 1 86, when the last of its representatives was 
conquered by Mohammed Ghori, or, as he is also 
called, Shahab-ud-din, of the Afghan house of Ghcr. 



38 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Shahab-ud-din, like his predecessors, meditated the 
conquest of India, and descended into its fertile 
plains in 1 191. In the Rajputs he found more 
formidable opponents than he had anticipated. 
Under their gallant leader, the Prithwi Raja, the}'' 
threw themselves across his line of march, and gave 
him battle at Tiruri, between Thaneswar and Karnal, 
" on the great plain where most of the contests for 
the possession of India have been decided." The 
Moslem mode of fighting was to make repeated 
charges with bodies of cavalry, who either withdrew 
after discharging their arms, or, if the foe retired, 
pressed their advance. On the other hand, it was 
the tactic of the Hindus to flank their enemy, and 
close in upon him with both wings while he was 
attacking their centre. On this occasion the manoeuvre 
proved completely successful. When he saw, with 
shame and indignation, the retreat of his warriors, 
he endeavoured to restore the battlfe by his personal 
example. Charging into the thickest of the fight, he 
felled his antagonists beneath his sweeping scimitar. 
The Rajput prince, to stay his onset, drove his 
elephant against him ; but Shahab-ud-din divined his 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 39 

intention, wheeled his horse dexterously aside, and, 
at the same time lifting his lance, struck the Raja a 
blow on the mouth, which knocked out some of his 
teeth. Almost simultaneously, an arrow pierced the 
Moslem sovereign's eye, and he was on the point 
of falling from his steed, when one of his faithful 
attendants leaped up behind him, supported him with 
his body, and guided 'him off the lost field. Having 
recovered from his wound at Lahore, Shahab-ud-din 
returned to Ghor, and dismissed and punished the 
ofificers to whose misconduct he attributed his defeat, 
— compelling them to parade about the city with 
horses' mouth- bags, full of fodder, suspended from 
their necks, the alternative before them being to eat 
the fodder or lose their heads. 

Two years later, with a force of 120,000 cavalry, 
many of whom bore jewelled helmets and armour 
inlaid with gold and silver, he once more set out on 
the march to India. As his design had been kept 
secret, a venerable sage addressed him at Peshawar, 
and said : " O king, we put our trust in thy conduct 
and wisdom, but as yet thy intentions have been the 
subject of much conjecture among us." " Know, old 



40 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

man," replied Mohammed, " that since the day of my 
defeat in India, I have never slumbered in ease, nor 
waked but in sorrow and anxiety. And I am now 
determined to recover my lost honour or perish in 
the attempt" 

On arriving at Lahore, he sent an envoy to the 
Raja of Ajmere, offering him his choice between 
conversion to the faith of Islam, and war. The Raja 
returned a contemptuous answer, and then sent for 
assistance to the neighbouring princes. The approach 
of a common enemy imposed a cordial union upon 
all, and they soon took the field with an army equal 
in numbers to that which had conquered in 1191. 
Encamping upon the same spot, they swore " by the 
water of the Ganges," — the most sacred form of oath 
known to the Hindus — that they would conquer their 
enemies or die martyrs to their faith. So confident 
were they of a triumphant issue, that they sent a 
message to Shahab-ud-din, warning him of the ruin 
that awaited him if he challenged their arms, but 
at the same time offering that he should retreat 
unmolested. The answer of the Moslem chief was so 
meek and apologetic in tone, that the Hindu princes 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 41 

thought it must have been dictated by fear, and 
abandoned themselves to revelry as if the battle had 
been fought and won. This was the result which the 
Sultan had anticipated ; and while the Indian camp 
echoed with the sounds of premature rejoicing, he 
carried his army across the river by an unguarded 
ford, and with flashing scimitar and bended bow 
broke into the midst of the astonished Hindus. 
Though thus suddenly . attacked, they got into 
tolerable array, and fought with gallant determina- 
tion " from morn till dewy eve," when, as the last 
glories of sunset faded from the contested field, the 
Sultan headed a final charge of 12,000 steel-clad 
horsemen, and carried off the victory. The Hindus, 
worn and weary, could make no further resistance, 
and fell before the cavalry of Islam like shocks of 
corn before a whirlwind. " This prodigious army, 
once shaken, like a huge building, tottered to its fail, 
and was lost in its own ruins." 

A Romantic Story. 

We come now upon a strange, romantic story which 
reads like a page out of chivalrous Froissart Bitter 



42 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

was the rivalry that had long subsisted between the 
two great Hindu monarchies of Delhi and Kanauj ; 
and fiercer did it become when the King of Delhi 
took to himself the title of the Prithwi Raja — that is, 
over-lord, or suzerain. To assert his own claim to 
that dignity, the King of Kanauj — then a rich and 
splendid city basking in the sunshine of prosperity, 
but now a colossal heap of ruins, dispersed over an 
area of eight square miles — resolved to hold the 
So?naz7', or Feast of Rajas. Now, at this grand 
ceremony, it was essential that even the menial offices 
should be filled by vassal princes, just as at royal 
banquets in feudal Christendom the cup-bearers and all 
other attendants were required to be of gentle blood ; 
and the King of Kanauj availed himself of the oppor- 
tunity of appointing his rival of Delhi to the post of 
gate-keeper, the most humiliating a high-caste Hindu 
could occupy. It was arranged that while the guests 
were drinking, the Raja's daughter should perform the 
ancient and traditional rite of making her swayamvara^ 
that is, selecting for herself a husband. 

The Prithwi Raja, or King of Delhi, a bold and 
handsome young prince, was, as the reader will 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 43 

have surmised, in love with the beautiful princess of 
Kanauj ; but felt unwilling by his presence at the 
Somair to acknowledge her father's pretensions. As 
he failed to appear, the King of Kanauj set up his 
effigy in ridicule at the entrance to his palace. When 
the banquet was over, the princess glided into the 
hall, swept with indifferent glance the circle of kingly 
guests, and, stepping quickly to the doorway, threw 
her bridal garland over .the neck of the insulting 
image. At that moment, the Prithwi Raja strode 
across the threshold — like a Hindu Lochinvar — • 
caught her up in his arms, and mounting his horse, 
which thought little of the double burden, rode away 
to his fair city on the Jumna. So fierce was the 
pursuit, however, that nearly all the brave warriors 
who had formed his escort perished in defending the 
flight of their prince and his bride. " He preserved 
his prize," says the Oriental poet, " and won immortal 
renown, but he lost the sinews of Delhi" 

And so it appeared when, soon afterwards, the 
King of Kanauj called in the aid of the Sultan's 
ablest general, Kutab-ud-din, and the Prithwi's less- 
ened force was attacked by the combined armies on 



44 WARRIORS O^ THE CRESCENT. 

the banks of the Caggar. The gallant young prince 
perished in the unequal fight ; and his heroic and 
devoted bride mounted with alacrity her hero- 
husband's funeral pile, after the Hindu custom 

In the following year, Shahab-ud-din again invaded 
India, and joining his magnificent array with the 
veterans of Kutab-ud-din, advanced to the Jumna, 
where he was opposed by the mighty host of the 
Hindu king, numbering 303,000 Rajput warriors, and 
including 150 rajas, who had sworn by the Sacred 
River to destroy their enemy or drink of the cup 
of martyrdom. But " notwithstanding their high- 
sounding menaces," says Ferishta, " their rank-bearing 
elephants, war-treading horses, and bloodthirsty 
soldiers, the Sultan surprised their camp in the night, 
when this mighty army recoiled like a troubled 
torrent from the bloody plain." The king perished 
in the Jumna ; Kanauj was taken and sacked, and 
never regained its pristine splendour and importance. 

The capture of the holy city of Benares was the 
Sultan's next great achievement. It met with the 
same fate as Kanauj. Its gilded shrines were rifled ; 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 45 

their priests slaughtered in cold blood. This is the 
sacred spot where the Supreme Deity of the Hindu 
Pantheon is supposed by orthodox Hindus to spend 
three hours of every day ; reclining, during the 
remainder, on a large rock of black marble, in the 
shade of a venerable peepul tree, within the walls of 
Chunar. Its sanctity dates back to the earliest age 
of fable. Long before men began to write history, 
Siva the Destroyer, chief- god of the Hindu Trinity, 
built this famous city of the purest gold, enriched it 
with temples of precious stones, and named it Kasi^ 
or The Magnificent. As the years went on, and the 
wickedness of the people increased, he converted it 
into stone ; and, the moral declension continuing even 
now, is engaged in changing the edifices of stone into 
humble buildings of mud and thatch. We may 
assume that his wrath at the wrong-doing of his 
worshippers was extreme, when he allowed his 
holy city and all its sanctuaries to be despoiled and 
polluted by the Warriors of the Crescent. 

A thousand temples, it is said, were plundered and 
destroyed on this occasion ; the booty they yielded 
would seem to have been enormous. Flushed with 



46 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

triumph and the fervour of fanatical enthusiasm, 
the Moslem army returned to Ghazni ; and when the 
Sultan, at the head of his victorious legions and 
followed by a long train of camels, loaded with the 
spoils of many cities, traversed the plains at the foot 
of his mountain-capital, the grey-beards among the 
crowds of exultant spectators gathered on its walls, 
glowing with pride at a spectacle that revealed the 
ancient glories of their race and reminded them of 
the stories they had heard in their youth of the 
wealth and glory of the great Sultan Mahmud. 

In 1206, Shahab-ud-din went on a journey into his 
western provinces, his busy brain teeming with new 
plans of conquest, and never suspecting that the 
shadow of death was pressing fast upon his footsteps. 
A band of twenty Ghakkars, who had lost some of 
their kinsmen in his wars, had bound themselves by 
a solemn oath to avenge their death upon the Sultan, 
and, following him closely, were ever on the watch 
for an opportunity to slay him. He had encamped 
on the bank of the Indus ; and the heat being 
excessive, had ordered the screens which enclosed 
the royal tent as in a quadrangle to be struck, that 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 47 

the air might have free passage. The murderers were 
thus enabled to ascertain the exact position of the 
Sultan's private apartments. At midnight, on the 
14th of March, they stole through the darkness and 
the silence to the door of the pavilion, warily eluding 
the notice of the guards. The Sultan lay asleep, 
with a couple of slaves fanning him. Before an 
alarm could be raised, the murderers fell upon him, 
and hacked him to death with two-and-twenty 
wounds. 

"The Pole-Star of Religion." 

At the time of Shahab-ud-din's death, a Turkish 
slave, whom he had carefully trained and educated, 
was governing the conquered provinces in India. 
Kutab-ud-din immediately proclaimed himself King 
of India at Delhi, and asserted his supremacy over 
all the Muhammadan princes from Sind to Lower 
Bengal. His devotion to the creed of Islam was so 
intense, and he was so zealous in observing all its 
rites, that he was called " the Pole-star of religion." 
In history he is known as the founder of the dynasty 
of the Slave kings, and as the first Muhammadan 



48 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT, 

sovereign who established his capital In India. Born 
a slave, he married the daughter of a slave, gave his 
sister in marriage to a slave, and married his own 
daughter to a slave, — to Altamsh, who succeeded him 
on the throne. He was a great soldier and a- capable 
administrator ; altogether a remarkable man, with 
' broad and liberal ideas, an ardent love of justice 
and virtue, and a cultivated taste. Two splendid 
memorials of his piety and his lofty conception of 
architecture are still extant in the Kutab mosque, 
and Kutab Minar of Delhi. 

Begun in 1200, the Kutab Minar was not com- 
pleted until 1220, in the reign of Kutab's successor. 
It is built of dark red sandstone, is profusely carved, 
encrusted with texts from the Koran in gigantic 
characters, and rises to a height of two hundred and 
thirty-eight feet. There is something singularly 
impressive in the appearance of this stupendous 
monument ; not alone from its great elevation, but also 
from the solitariness of its position and the exquisite 
grace of its outlines. Its form is that of an elongated 
cone, in four tiers or stages, which diminish in alti- 
tude as they recede from the ground. At the base it 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 49 

measures forty-six feet in diameter ; at the summit, 
nine feet. Richly ornamented, it repays the closest 
examination. Each storey or tier is surrounded by 
a broad belt of flowers and arabesques, and supports 
a massive balcony. In all probability, the monu- 
ment was intended for a Muezzin's tower or minaret, 
whence the call to morning and evening prayer 
might be heard over the whole city. 

The mosque, as we learn from an inscription on 
its entrance-archway, was begun some seven years 
before the erection of the Minar, and completed in 
three years. During the reign of Altamsh it was 
enlarged. It consists of an inner and outer court- 
yard, the latter enclosed by a beautiful colonnade 
of marble, the polished shafts of which had been 
plundered from Hindu temples. The idolatrous 
carving with which they were adorned was originally 
concealed from the eyes of the faithful by a thick 
coat of stucco ; but this crumbled away long ago, 
revealing the exquisite handiwork of the Hindu 
artists in all its " pristine wealth." The western 
fa9ade is relieved by eleven splendid arches, Muham- 
madan in design, but evidently of Hindu execution. 



50 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Among his many virtues Kutab possessed that 
of generosity. Before his accession to the throne he 
was known as " the giver of lakhs " (i.e. lakhs of 
rupees) ; and for long after his death the people 
would say of any prince distinguished by his libe- 
rality, " He is as generous as Kutab." 

Altamsh, and the Mogul Invasion. 

It is in the reign of Altamsh, the third of the slave- 
kings, and son-in-law of Kutab, who bought him in 
his youth for no less a sum (it is said) than 50,000 
pieces of silver, that we first hear of the Moguls or 
Mughals in connection with Indian history. Legend 
and tradition have done much to expand the fame of 
Changiz or Genghis Khan ; but it is certain, from 
the evidence of authentic history, that he was a 
remarkable man, one of those who change the fates 
of nations and shape the destiny of the world. A 
petty Mughal chief, he gathered round him a force 
of desperate warriors, with whom he subdued the 
three nations of Tartary. Afterwards, uniting their 
levies of fighting men in one mighty host, he broke 
like a flood of waters upon the Muhammadan king- 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 5 1 

doms, and threatened to sweep away their religion, 
their wealth, and their civilisation. " This irruption," 
remarks the historian, "was the greatest calamity 
that had fallen on mankind since the deluge. They 
(the Tartars) had no religion to teach, and no seeds 
of improvement to sow, nor did they offer any alter- 
native of conversion or tribute ; their only object was 
to slaughter and destroy, and the only trace they left 
was in the devastation of every country which they 
visited." 

In 1227, the year in which St. Louis led the 
soldiers of the Cross on an expedition against the 
Paynim, this Mughal chief swept with fire and sword 
the fairest regions of Central Asia, from China in one 
direction to Persia in another. To us who contem- 
plate him across a gulf of nearly seven centuries, he 
seems to have been neither warrior nor statesman, 
but simply a monster of cruelty. From the day 
when, after the Tartar fashion, he was seated on 
a black sheepskin, and saluted as chief khan of the 
Turki peoples, to that when he closed his haggard, 
wolfish eyes on the frontier of China, his career was 
one of unending warfare, of continuous bloodshed, 



52 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Having asked one of his chiefs what he considered 
the greatest pleasure of man, he received the reply 
of a true son of the Steppes : " To go hunting on a 
bright day in spring, mounted on a high-bred horse, 
and, holding a falcon on your wrist, to see him pull 
down his prey." This was too tame a felicity to 
satisfy the restless spirit of Changiz Khan. " No ! " 
he exclaimed ; " man's greatest enjoyment is to 
conquer his enemies, to sweep them before him, to 
spoil them of all they possess, to fill with tears the 
eyes of the persons they love, to seize upon their 
horses, and carry away captive their wives and 
daughters." 

One need not be surprised that a man who 
cherished so fiendish a sentiment, and made it the 
governing purpose of his life, was regarded with 
terror and hatred by the nations whom he plundered 
and oppressed. They ascribed to him a birth super- 
natural, as if it were impossible for such a monster 
to have been born like other men. Whispering low, 
the peasants told one another that he had come into 
the world with congealed blood on his hands ; that, 
like Romulus and Remus in the old Latin myth, 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 53 

he was suckled by wild beasts. His marches were 
accomplished with such swiftness that the ignorant 
declared his horses had wings. Among other 
exaggerations, the chroniclers pretend that in his 
wars he had put to death fourteen millions of human 
beings. They add that, on one occasion, he burned 
the Bible with every manifestation of contempt, and 
trod the Koran under his horse's feet in the centre of 
the holiest mosque of Bokhara. 

Ferocious as he was, Changiz must have possessed 
some of the highest qualities of ruler and commander, 
or he would never have tamed the fiery temper of the 
Tartar race and compelled them to do his bidding. 
No rebellion shook his stable government, and his 
will was uncontested over an empire which extended 
eighteen hundred leagues from east to west, and 
upwards of one thousand from north to south. 
Though he crossed the Indus and penetrated into 
the Doab, he turned away from the rich plains of 
Hindustan to gratify his great hatred of the Chinese ; 
but he had shown the warriors of Central Asia the 
way into that golden land, and inspired them with 
a dream and desire of its conquest 



54 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

A Woman Ruler. 

Raziya, a daughter of Altamsh, was the only 
woman who ever sat on the throne of Delhi. 

Her brother, a profligate and indolent youth, had 
been deposed after a reign of only seven months. Of 
the two factions who had combined to overthrow 
him, one was opposed to the elevation of his sister 
and appeared in great numbers before the capital, 
defeating an army which had been sent to its relief 
With consummate address, however, the Sultana con- 
trived to sow dissension among its leaders, until the 
whole confederacy was honeycombed with intrigue, 
and fell into hopeless disorder. Some of its promi- 
nent men she then put to death, others she enlisted 
in her own service ; and by the exercise of new 
powers of government she soon restored peace and 
made her throne secure. Her father had predicted 
her success as a ruler : '' Know," he frequently said 
to his rriorahs, " that the burden of empire, too heavy 
for my sons, will not be so for the delicate Raziya ! 
There is more courage in that young girl than in all 
her brothers." Ferishta remarks, with a compliment 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 55 

to the queen that conveys a slight to her sex,— 
" Razlya Begum was endued with every princely virtue, 
and those who scrutinise her actions most severely 
will find in her no other fault than that she was a 
woman!' No doubt her influence was greatly in- 
creased by her rare personal charms ; by that sunny 
smile of hers, which, according to her wazir, was 
sufficient " to ripen the corn in the blade " ; by that 
expressive glance, with .which, it was said, she could 
revive a dying friend, or subjugate her most powerful 
enemy. 

Her personal attention was given to every detail 
of administration. Throwing aside her robes and 
veil, she would assume the tunic and cap of a man, 
and take her seat daily on her throne to listen to 
the prayer or complaint of every comer ; reforming the 
abuses which her keen eye detected, redressing the 
grievances which were brought before her, deciding 
important suits, and, in a word, displaying all the 
characteristics of a Justinian or a Charlemagne. But, 
like great Queen Bess, she could not guard against 
one weakness — a liking to have handsome men about 
her. She conceived a strong partiality for her Master 



56 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

of the Horse ; and this partiality was all the more 
unfortunate in that he was an Abyssinian slave, and 
she deeply offended her proud nobles by raising him 
to the dignity oi Amir al Omara, or Captain-General, 
which gave him precedency before all. It does not 
appear that any imputation rested on her honour, 
nor was she accused of any greater indecorum than 
that of allowing the Abyssinian to lift her on her 
horse. 

But a rebellion broke out under the leadership of 
a Turki chief named Altunia. With her usual energy 
and promptitude, she marched against his fort of 
Batinda. The poison of disaffection, however, had 
crept into her army, which mutinied, killed its com- 
mander, and placed the Sultana in Altunia's hands 
for safety. Her beauty and her address temporarily 
extricated her from the perils of her position. She 
so fascinated Altunia that he married her, raised a 
large force to assert her claims, and advanced to 
Delhi to attack his former confederates. Two bloody 
battles went against Raziya and her husband ; they 
were taken prisoners, and put to death (1239). Her 
brilliant reign lasted little more than two years ; but 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 57 

a woman of so much courage and capacity would 
seem to have deserved a better fate. 



"King and no King." 

Some anecdotes which seem to me not without 
interest are recorded of Sultan Nasir-ud-din, the 
grandson of Altamsh. He cultivated very assidu- 
ously that unkingly virtue, economy, — a virtue which 
is hardly ever popular in a ruler ; and, indeed, on so 
parsimonious a scale of simplicity was his household 
regulated that it gave great offence to a people accus- 
tomed to all the pomp and circumstance of Oriental 
royalty. But in his early years he had endured the 
privations of a prison, and been compelled to earn his 
daily bread by his skill as a penman. Throughout 
his reign he continued the practice of writing every 
day as much " copy " as would have paid the day's 
expenses. As his fare was of the plainest description, 
and always cooked by the Queen, we may assume 
that the demand upon his pen was not very heavy. 
" Contrary to the custom of other [Eastern] princes," 
says Ferishta, " he had but one wife, whom he com- 



58 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

pel led to perform even the homeliest parts of house- 
wifery. When she complained one day that she had 
burned her fingers in baking his bread, and desired 
the assistance of a maid, he refused her request, 
saying he was only a steward for the State, and 
was resolved not to burden it with any needless 
expenditure. He exhorted her, therefore, to be 
patient and persevering in doing her duty." 

He seems to have been an enlightened and a well- 
mannered gentleman. It is told of him that having 
shown to a nobleman of his court one of the copies 
he had made of some famous book, the nobleman 
indicated several mistakes, which the Sultan forth- 
with corrected. When the nobleman left, the Sultan 
was observed to erase his corrections and restore the 
original text Being asked the reason, he replied that 
he knew his transcript to be right all the time, but 
preferred to make the supposed emendations rather 
than wound the feelings of a well-intentioned adviser. 
The Sultan was thoroughly versed in Persian litera- 
ture, and took a pleasure in the patronage of literary 
men. The " Tabakati Nasiri," a general history of 
Persia and India, which is still regarded as a Persian 



A TAGEANT OF KINGS. 59 

work, was written at his Court, and in its title 
preserves his name. 

In short, Nasir was one of those princes of whom 
one naturally thinks as misplaced men. In a private 
situation he would have enjoyed life and graced it 
by his refinement and culture. He wanted the firm- 
ness of character and the vigour of intellect indis- 
pensable in a successful ruler, and therefore devolved 
his sovereign duties on his wazir, or chief minister, 
Ghiya-ud-din Balban, a Turki slave, who had married 
one of the Sultan Altamsh's daughters. Balban was 
a man of ability, and governed with a firm hand ; 
repulsed the inroads of the Mughals ; and subdued 
some rebellious Hindu rajas. It was but natural — 
alas, poor human nature ! — that the Sultan should 
at last grow jealous of the fame his minister had 
acquired, and summon up resolution to dismiss him. 
But the misgovernment which followed gave rise to 
a powerful combination for restoring to power the 
capable wazir. The Sultan submitted • and thence- 
forth Balban became the real head of the government, 
though it was administered in the name of Nasir-ud- 
din- 



60 WARiaORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

A CRUEL SOVEREIGN. 

On the death of Nasir, Balban, or Ghiya-ud-din, 
assumed the royal title (1266). He was a Turki 
slave ; the son of an influential Turki chief. Having 
been kidnapped in his boyhood by the Mughals, he 
was eventually sold to a merchant of Bussorah, who 
on discovering that he belonged to the same tribe 
as the Sultan Altamsh carried him to Delhi, and 
exhibited him in the public mart, together with a 
hundred other youths of different nations. All found 
favour in the Sultan's eyes except Balban, who was 
short of stature and plain of countenance. On hear- 
ing that his physical disadvantages were the cause 
of his rejection, he said to the Sultan : " Lord of 
the world, why have you bought all these slaves?" 
With a smile Altamsh answered, " For my own 
sake." "No doubt," replied the youth: "buy me, 
then, for God's sake." " I will," said the Sultan, 
greatly struck by the lad's boldness, and he bought 
him and placed him with the rest Owing to his 
want of comeliness, he was first put among the 
cupbearers; but his address soon brought him for- 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 6 1 

ward, and as he displayed much skill in the 
pastime of hawking, he was appointed Court 
Falconer. Thenceforward his rise was rapid, until 
he became, as we have seen, Nasir's wazir and lieu- 
tenant 

There can be no doubt that he was a man of 
astonishing intellectual vigour. As a sovereign he 
was distinguished by his sagacity and strict love of 
justice ; but he inherited the cruelty of his race. 
During the life of Altamsh he had entered into a 
kind of offensive and defensive alliance with forty 
of the king's other slaves, most of whom attained 
to high stations. But when he himself rose into 
power, he became apprehensive of their possible 
jealousy and ambition ; and on various pretexts put 
them all to death. He made it a rule to confer 
office only on men of family ; carrying this policy 
to such an extreme, that he refused to hold any 
intercourse with people of low origin. He was careful 
also to exclude Hindus from all offices of trust ; 
which, however, may have been a politic and neces- 
sary precaution. 

A liberal patron of literature, as was also his eldest 



62 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

son, Prince Muhammad, he attracted to his court all 
the famous authors of that age. Among many names 
well known in Persian literature, the chief was the 
poet, Amir Khusru, on the enjoyment of whose 
society he was congratulated by Sadi, the greatest 
of the Persian bards, who sent him at the same time 
a copy of his works, and expressed his regret that 
the infirmities of old age prevented him from visiting 
Delhi. As the Muhammadan nobles followed their 
prince's example, literature, during his reign, had 
quite a spell of prosperity. At the house of a 
grandee, named Khan Shahid, a society of learned 
men assembled regularly ; while the Sultan's second 
son presided over a more miscellaneous and attrac- 
tive gathering of musicians, actors, dancers, and 
kissagoes or story-tellers. Similar societies flourished 
all over the capital. 

Balban, like our English Plantagenets, had a fine 
taste for sumptuous show and glittering pageant. 
Here again his example influenced his nobles, so 
that the streets of Delhi were alive with gorgeous 
dresses and costly equipages — with all the outward 
and visible signs of wealth and luxury. The regal 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 63 

pomp with which Balban loved to dazzle his subjects 
is thus described by Ferishta : " So imposing were the 
ceremonies of introduction to his presence, that none 
could approach the throne without a mixture of awe 
and admiration. Nor was he less magnificent in his 
processions. His state elephants were covered with 
trappings of purple and gold. His horse guards, 
numbering one thousand Tartars, were clothed in 
glittering armour, and mounted on the finest steeds 
of Persia and Araby, with silver bridles and richly 
embroidered housings. Five hundred foot soldiers, 
carefully picked, preceded him with their swords 
drawn, to proclaim his approach and clear the way. 
His omrahs, or nobles, followed in the order of their 
rank, with their various equipages and attendants." 
Thus, through kneeling crowds, the splendid Sultan 
made his royal progress. 

In his old age Balban met with a heavy misfortune, 
the death of his son and heir. Prince Mahmud, whom 
he had made Governor of Multan. After suppressing 
an insurrection in Bengal, the Sultan, on his return 
to Delhi, was visited by the Prince ; and father and 
son spent three months together in great happiness, 



64 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

for they were united by the bonds of a strong and 
sincere affection. But the Mughals having invaded 
Multan, the prince hastened to drive back their 
marauding hordes. The Sultan, who was nearly 
eighty years old, felt the separation keenly, having 
a presentiment that they would meet no more, 
and in their parting interview he gave the 
prince much good counsel as to the policy he 
should adopt when he took up the burden of 
power. 

By swift marches the Prince overtook the invaders, 
and defeated them with terrible slaughter. In the 
heat of the pursuit, he halted on the bank of a cool, 
clear stream to quench his thirst. The bulk of his 
army had not come up, and he was attended by only 
some five hundred horsemen. In an adjoining wood 
lay concealed a Mughal chief, with two thousand of 
his followers. Breaking from their covert, they sur- 
rounded the prince and his little company, who, after 
a gallant resistance, were slain to a man. The death 
of his son proved a mortal blow to the aged Sultan, 
and he died shortly afterwards, devolving the succes- 
sion on his grandson (1286), 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 65 

TRAITORS AND TREACHERY. 

The slave dynasty came to an end In 1288, and 
was succeeded by the Hne of the Khiljis, who came of 
Afghan Hneage. The first Sultan of this house was 
Jalul-ud-din, a man of great ability, but in his old 
age a too generous and lenient leader. Having 
pardoned and set free some chiefs who had rebelled 
against him, he sought to explain his lenity by a text 
from the Koran : " Evil for evil is easily returned ; 
but he only is great who returns good for evil." His 
omrahs did not dispute the excellence of the senti- 
ment, but objected that in the circumstances it was 
inapplicable. " At all events," they argued, " the 
rebels should be deprived of sight, to render them 
powerless for further mischief, and to serve as a 
warning to others. If this were not done, treason 
would soon raise its head in every corner of the 
empire. " What you say," rejoined the Sultan, " is 
quite in accord with the usual rules of policy ; but, 
my friends, I am now old, and I would fain go down 
to the grave without shedding more blood." There 
are times, however, in which — ^just as there are people 



66 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

over whom — a firm, strong hand is indispensable for 
the repression of crime and the preservation of law 
and order ; and Jalul-ud-din's " rose-water " govern- 
ment was not altogether justified by the result The 
turbulent race he ruled over mistook his lenity for 
weakness ; and crime was encouraged by the tender- 
ness he showed to criminals. " The streets and high- 
ways," says the historian, " were infested by thieves 
and banditti. Housebreaking, robbery, murder, and 
every kind of offence were committed, many adopt- 
ing them as a means of subsistence. Insurrections 
prevailed in every province : the numerous gangs 
of robbers interrupted commerce, and even common 
intercourse ; while the King's governors neglected 
to render any account either of their revenues or 
administration." 

Of the plots formed against the Sultan's life the 
most formidable was the work of a famous dervish, 
Siddi Mullah. A Persian by birth, he had risen into 
immense popularity at Delhi by his apparent sanctity 
of life, and his unbounded liberality to the poor. 
This popularity nourished in his mind a great am- 
bition, which was encouraged by an intriguing Hindu, 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 6/ 

who had gained his confidence, and pretended that 
the people looked to him as to a deliverer sent by 
Providence, to rescue them from the yoke of the 
Khiljis, and bestow upon Hindustan the boon of a 
wise and equitable government. To reach the goal 
of his new hopes, the dervish planned the removal of 
the Sultan. Two of Jalul-ud-din's attendants were 
bribed to assassinate him on his way to the public 
mosque ; but one of them was seized with remorse, 
and revealed the design. The dervish was at once 
arrested ; but, as he protested his innocence, and the 
evidence against him was only that of a suspected 
witness, the Sultan gave orders that he should be 
allowed to compurge himself by the ordeal of fire. 
Everything was prepared for the ceremony ; the 
flames blazed high and strong ; and the dervish, 
having performed his devotions, was on the point of 
plunging into the fiery furnace, when Jalul-ud-din 
stopped him, and turning to the priests or mullahs, 
inquired, " Is it lawful to try the faithful by the ordeal 
of fire?" With one consent they replied that the 
custom was heathenish, and contrary to Muhammadan 
law as well as to reason, inasmuch as it was the 



68 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

property of fire to destroy, and it made no distinction 
between the righteous and the wicked. The dervish 
was then ordered back to prison, but as he went 
some religious mendicants fell upon and killed him. 
The conspiracy formed against the Sultan by his 
nephew, Ala-ud-din, proved more successful (1295). 
By profuse expressions of respect and affection, he 
inveigled his uncle into paying him a visit. When 
the imperial canopy was seen coming up the river, 
Ala-ud-din drew out his troops under pretence of 
doing honour to his sovereign, and sent his brother 
Alagh Khan to arrange the details of his reception. 
Alagh, a man of insinuating address, poured out a 
flood of compliments in the true Oriental fashion, 
while craftily persuading the Sultan that if he 
advanced with a large retinue, Ala-ud-din, who feared 
that he had already incurred the royal displeasure, 
would be seriously alarmed. Jalul-ud-din was in- 
duced to dismiss all but a few attendants, whom he 
ordered to unbuckle their armour and lay aside their 
swords. The royal barge then ascended the river to 
the gat, or landing-place ; and the white-haired Sultan 
stepped ashore alone to greet his nephew, who threw 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 69 

himself prostrate at his feet. Raising him up, em- 
bracing him, and tapping him familiarly on the cheek, 
" How couldst thou be suspicious of me," said the 
Sultan, " who have brought you up from the weakness 
of childhood, and nurtured you in the warmth of 
a paternal affection, holding you dearer, if possible, 
than my own offspring ? " Ala-ud-din, unmoved by 
these tender words, made a signal to his troops, one 
of whom aimed at the aged monarch with his scimitar, 
wounding him in the shoulder. He turned to gain 
his barge, exclaiming, " O thou villain, Ala-ud-din ! " 
but before he could reach it, was overtaken by 
another soldier, who threw him to the ground and 
struck off his head. It is said that the man who 
did this bloody deed never afterwards enjoyed a 
moment's rest. By day and night, the old man's 
grey locks, bedabbled with gore, were present to his 
disordered vision ; so that at last he went mad, and 
expired in the greatest agony, crying aloud, until 
death stopped the delirious repetition, that Jalul-ud- 
din was cutting off his head. 

Ala-ud-din was a great warrior, and spent the 
twenty years of his reign in continuous battle. 



70 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

The Story of his double siege of Chittur will interest 
the reader, I imagine, for it reads like a chapter from 
an Oriental romance. 

Lakhumsi, a minor, was then Raja of Chittur, and 
Bheemsi, his uncle, governed in his name as regent. 
He had chosen for his bride the dark -tressed Padmani^ 
(or " very beautiful "), daughter of the King of Ceylon, 
whose rare personal charms are to this day celebrated 
by the Oriental poets. The fame of her loveliness 
having reached the ears of Ala-ud-din, he conceived 
a strong desire to win her for himself. Invading 
Rajputana, he laid siege to Chittur, but offered to 
withdraw his army if Padmani were given up. But 
no true Rajput would consent to a Rajput woman's 
degradation, and his condition was scornfully rejected. 
The siege was prolonged for several months, until at 
length the Sultan declared that he would be satisfied 
with the mere sight of the beautiful princess — a 
pleasure which he was enabled to enjoy through an 
arrangement of refracting mirrors. Relying on the 
chivalry of the Rajputs, he entered Chittur with only 
a few attendants, and after contemplating the reflected 
charms of Padmani, set out on his return to his 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 71 

camp, accompanied by Bheemsi, who, placing equal 
faith in the honour of the Khilji, advanced to some 
distance from the walls of Chittur. Unwise are they 
who put their trust in princes ! He was involved 
in an ambush treacherously prepared by Ala-ud-din, 
made prisoner, and informed that his life and liberty 
depended on the surrender of his loving wife. When 
the news reached Chittur, Padmani expressed her 
readiness to make the sacrifice ; but stipulated that 
she should be attended by a suitable train of hand- 
maidens, and that no curious gaze should be per- 
mitted to violate her privacy. 

On the appointed day she set out for the royal 
camp, followed by a hundred litters, each of which 
contained a Rajput noble, and was carried by six 
armed men, disguised as bearers. The litters were 
deposited within the royal tents, and half an hour 
was allowed for the leave-taking between Padmani 
and her husband, who, at the expiry of the interview, 
was placed in a litter, ostensibly to be carried back 
to Chittur, while most of the supposed handmaids 
remained to accompany their royal mistress to Delhi. 
Ala-ud din's treachery hastened the denouement of 



72 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

this romantic drama ; for when it became apparent 
that he sought to prevent Bheemsi's return, the 
Rajput nobles sprang from their concealment, and 
with drawn swords attacked the Sultan's guards. A 
desperate struggle and a bloody one ensued ; in the 
course of it Bheemsi escaped on a swift horse, and 
Padmani was saved to him by the chivalrous devotion 
of the nobles and warriors of Chittur. 

THE VISION. 

Later in his reign, Ala-ud-din a second time laid 
siege to the fortress-city, and this time with a force 
which proved irresistible. Connected with its down- 
fall is told the following legend : — 

" The young Lakhumsi was dead, and Bheemsi 
reigned in his place. One night, after long fighting 
against the besiegers, he was resting on his pallet, 
and pondering the perils of his beloved country, when 
he was startled by a voice which said, ' I am hungry ! ' 
Looking up, his blood almost froze as he recognised 
between himself and the lamp a shadowy Presence, 
which he knew to be the guardian-goddess of Chittur. 
*Not satisfied yet?' exclaimed the prince, * though 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 73 

eight thousand of my kinsmen have been offered in 
battle as a sacrifice to you ! ' * I must have kingly 
victims,' she cried, ' and unless twelve who have 
sat on the purple musnud bleed for Chittur, the 
sovereignty will pass from your line.' With these 
words she vanished. On the following morning he 
related his vision to his nobles, who treated it as a 
freak of the imagination ; whereupon he commanded 
their attendance at midnight. And lo ! the goddess 
came again, and again she named the condition on 
which alone she would consent to watch over Chittur. 
Frowning upon them, she said : ' Though barbarians 
strew the earth in thousands, what are they to me ? 
On each day see that you choose a prince, and place 
in his hand the sceptre, and on his head the diadem, 
and for three days let his commands be obeyed. On 
the fourth let him go to meet the enemy and his 
fate ! Thus alone will I be satisfied.' " 

Now, it happened that the Raja had twelve sons, 
and after a generous contention among themselves, 
the eldest was proclaimed king. For three days he 
ruled, and on the fourth he fell in battle. Each son 
in turn devoted himself in the same manner, until 



74 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

all but the youngest had been slain. One more 
victim would complete the tale. Calling his nobles 
around him, the Raja said, " Now will I myself perish, 
that Chittur may be saved." And he would listen 
to neither expostulation nor entreaty. A chosen 
band of warriors was entrusted with the person of 
his youngest son, and ordered to cut their way 
through the enemy's ranks at whatever cost. He 
then commanded that the jolmr, or self-immolation 
. of the women, should take place— the last resource 
of the Rajputs in the hour of defeat ; and a huge 
funeral pile having been erected, Padmani, and all 
the wives and daughters of Chittur, hastened to 
plunge into the mounting flames ; after which the 
Raja put on the sacrificial robe of saffron, and 
sallied forth with his followers to fall beneath the 
swords of the Moslems. 

THE JOHUR. 

A singular sacrifice occurred when Ala-ud-din 
besieged the city of Jossulmeer. For eight months 
he invested it so closely that famine stalked through 
its streets, and its population, wan and haggard, with 



A TAGEANT OF KINGS. 75 

staring eyes and pallid countenances, perished by 
hundreds daily. When human nature could endure 
no more, Mulraj, the Raja, summoned his nobles in 
durbar, and addressed them in the true spirit of 
a Rajput prince : " We are the sons of the free ; in 
our veins flows the blood of the Rahtou : shall we 
see our houses defiled and our women dishonoured 
by a barbarian foe? For eight months we have 
defended our dwellings ; but now the last handful 
of rice is eaten, and it is impossible to obtain any 
fresh supplies : what is to be done ? " " There is but 
one thing to be done,'' replied his chiefs, gravely, 
"and that is the johur. We must sacrifice our 
women, destroy by fire and water all that is capable 
of destruction, and bury all that is not ; then throw 
open our gates, rush upon the foe, and, sword in 
hand, ensure our admission into Paradise." 

Mulraj and his nobles returned to their palaces, 
and acquainted the women with their dread resolve. 
It was rapturously applauded. The Rani clapped 
her hands, and, smiling, said, " To-night we will make 
our preparations, and before to-morrow's dawn we 
shall be inhabitants of the realms of eternal bliss." 



76 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

As soon as the first streak of day was visible in 
the eastern skies, women and children, all in their 
gayest attire, assembled at the gate of the palace, 
to the number of four thousand. Every countenance 
wore a smile of rapt devotion. There was no sign of 
the terror and dread which a premature and, more 
' particularly, a violent death inspires. You would 
have thought they were taking part in some high 
festivity. Within the palace court a huge pile had 
been erected, which sent up columns and spires of 
flame in the grey morning light. When they had 
bidden farewell to one another, and had parted from 
husband and father and brother, they went gaily to 
their doom, most of them cheerfully ascending the 
blazing pyre, but some preferring to bare their 
bosoms to the sword, and die by a beloved hand. 
Not one — not one shrank from the sacrifice ! Then, 
having destroyed everything of value in the city, 
three thousand eight hundred warriors, their faces red 
with wrath and their hearts torn by raging passions, 
broke upon the foe in hopeless battle, and perished 
with their prince and his nobles (1295). Of such 
heroic deeds of patriotism were the Rajputs capable, 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 77 

— deeds which, if told of Greek or Roman, would 
have gained the applause of all the Western World, 
and been made the theme of epic and romance. 

Here I must interpolate a bit of history. By this 
time — that is, by the close of the thirteenth century 
— the Afghan king of Delhi had blossomed out into 
the Muhammadan Sultan of India. As Sir William 
Hunter points out, three great " waves of invasion " 
had deposited in India a large Muhammadan popu- 
lation. First came the Turkis, represented by the 
House of Ghazni ; next, the Afghans (commonly so 
called), represented by the House of Ghor ; and, 
third, the Mughals or Moguls, who, having failed in 
repeated attempts to conquer the Punjab, hired them- 
selves out as soldiers to the sovereigns of Delhi. 
Those mercenaries, like the Janissaries of Constanti- 
nople and the Mamelukes of Cairo, in a later age, 
became so formidable to their employers that Balban, 
in the last year of his reign, was compelled to put 
them to the sword. About 1292, a suburb of Delhi, 
still called Mughalpur, was allotted for their quarters 
to three thousand Mughals, who had abandoned their 
old Tartar religion, and embraced the faith of Islam. 



78 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

But the immigration still continued, until Ala-ud-din, 
like his predecessor, grew alarmed at the numbers of 
these fierce but intractable fighting-men ; and, in 
131 1, having laid his plans with consummate ability, 
accomplished the massacre of fifteen thousand males, 
and sold their women and children into slavery. 

Ala-ud-din died in 1 3 16, — it is said of poison, 
secretly administered by his general, Kafur. His 
youngest son. Amir Khan, reigned for a short time 
and was succeeded by his eldest son, Mubarik. 
Mubarik was murdered in March, 1321, by one of 
his eunuchs, who ascended the purple musnud as 
Nasir-ud-din. But the proud nobles of Islam could 
not brook the usurpation of a low-born renegade, and 
a conspiracy was formed against him, of which the 
leading spirit was Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak, Governor of 
the Punjab. Nasir was defeated and slain in battle. 
The day after his victory, Tughlak mounted his horse, 
rode away to Delhi, and entered the city with the 
pomp of a conqueror. But on coming in sight of 
the imperial palace, he burst into tears, and ex- 
claimed : — " O ye people of this great empire, I am 
nothing more than one of yourselves, who unsheathed 



A PAGEANT OF KINGS. 79 

his sword to deliver you from oppression and rid the 
world of a monster. By the blessing of Allah, my 
efforts have been crowned with success. If, therefore, 
any member of the royal family be living, let him 
be brought forth, that justice may be done, and that 
we his servants may do homage before his throne. 
But if no one of the royal race have escaped the 
bloody hand of tyranny and usurpation, let the 
worthiest of the illustrious order be elected by you, 
and I swear that I will accept your choice." Struck 
by his magnanimity, the people replied that none of 
the princes had survived ; and that as he had rescued 
them from a tyrant's yoke, no one was worthier of 
the crown than he. They gathered round him with 
shouts and cries of exultation ; seated him on the 
musnud ; and saluted him with the title of Shah 
Jehan, " King of the Universe.'' But with prudent 
humility he declined so ostentatious a designation, 
and declared that he would be known only as Ghiyas- 
ud-din, " The Aid of Religion." Ghiyas was the first 
King or Sultan of the House of Tughlak. He was 
killed by the fall of the roof of a pavilion which had 
been erected hastily for his entertainment (1324). 



CHAPTER III. 

A TYRANT AND A SCHOLAR. 

'npHERE is a well-known Ovidian saying that the 
love of knowledge softens the manners, and 
prevents them from lapsing into brutality — "imoUit 
mores, nee sinit esse feros." Muhammad Tughlak, son 
and successor of Ghiyas, was a notable example of 
its fallacy. In cruelty he surpassed even the cruellest 
of Oriental potentates ; he raged with the lust of 
blood ; to take the lives of his fellow-men was his 
supreme pastime. " So little did he scruple," says 
Ferishta, " to spill the blood of God's creatures, that 
when aught occurred which excited him to that dread- 
ful extremity, one might have supposed his object 
was to exterminate the human race altogether." Yet 
he was a fine scholar ; in all probability more learned, 
eloquent, and polished than any contemporary sove- 
reign. Medicine, logic, astronomy, and mathematics 



A TYRANT AND A SCHOLAR. 8 1 

were his favourite studies ; and he had drunk deeply 
of the fountains of history. Nature had endowed him 
with a memory of extraordinary tenacity, so that he 
retained every name, date, and event which he had 
heard or read but once. Poetry he cultivated with 
success ; and he swept with intelligent glance the 
wide region of Greek philosophy. In the art of war 
he was as skilful as he was experienced. As he was 
also a man of great piety, scrupulously adhering to 
the doctrines and regulations of Islam, he possessed 
apparently all the qualifications of a wise and pros- 
perous ruler, except "that which the poet rightly 
calls twice-blessed, since it blesses both him who 
gives and him who receives — the quality of mercy. 
So terrible, indeed, and so relentless was his fury at 
the slightest provocation, that we may reasonably 
suppose his intellect to have trembled at times on 
the borders of insanity. And such would certainly 
seem to be the only explanation of some of his 
extravagances, as when he buried one of his teeth, 
which had been extracted in order to relieve him 
from toothache, with all the pomp of royal obsequies, 
and erected over it a magnificent mausoleum. 



82 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

One of his nephews having rebelled against him 
(in 1338), and twice defeated the Sultan's troops, 
was eventually subdued and taken prisoner. Being 
carried to Delhi, the Sultan ordered him to be flayed 
alive; and his dead body was afterwards paraded 
round the city, while the executioner cried,—" Thus 
shall all traitors to their monarch perish ! " 

Muhammad had taken the field in person to 
suppress this revolt, and fixed his headquarters at 
Dergiri, or Dergarh, which had been captured by 
Ala-ud-din in 1294. He was so pleased with its 
situation that he resolved to make it the capital of 
his empire ; and re-christening it Daulatabad, or 
" The Fortunate City," issued orders that Delhi 
should be evacuated, and its population transferred 
thither, a distance of eight hundred miles. It is 
easy to imagine the terrible hardships this com- 
pulsory migration must have involved. Delhi, at 
that time known as " The Envy of the World," was 
completely deserted ; and the story goes that at last 
only a blind man and a paralytic were found lingering 
in its silent streets. The poor palsied wretch, as a 
punishment for his dilatoriness, was blown from the 




VIEW IN THE GARDENS OF THE OLD PALACE, DELHI. 



iPage 83. 



A TYRANT AND A SCHOLAR. 8^ 

mouth of a catapult ; but the blind man was dragged 
from the old to the new capital, a march of forty 
days. With grim humour the historian adds that on 
the way he fell into pieces, and only one of his legs 
reached Daulatabad. 

In the course of one of his later expeditions, his 
army advanced into the immediate neighbourhood of 
the ancient capital ; whereupon those soldiers who 
had been born there, or otherwise connected with it, 
deserted in thousands, concealing themselves in the 
surrounding woods until the king should have passed 
on. This wholesale desertion so thinned his ranks 
that the Sultan was compelled to resume his resi- 
dence at Delhi in the hope of tempting the fugitives 
to return. Not the less obstinately did he adhere 
to his original purpose ; and at the end of two years 
he once more removed the inhabitants to Dau- 
latabad ; so that " the noble metropolis of Delhi " 
became " a resort for ants and a dwelling-place for 
the beasts of the forest." Before his own departure, 
his insane lust of blood impelled him to the per- 
petration of fresh atrocities. Having organised an 
immense hunting-party, he proclaimed that the 



84 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

quarry would consist of human beings ; and a con- 
siderable area of country having been surrounded by 
the hunters, he commanded them to converge simul- 
taneously towards the centre, and kill all they met 
with, as if they were wild beasts ! These dreadful 
man-hunts were repeated in several provinces ; and. 
on one occasion he ordered a wholesale massacre of 
the inhabitants of the famous city of Kanauj. ^ 

It is no wonder that a reign disgraced by such 
atrocities should be disturbed by constant rebellions. 
The marvel is, that his subjects did not everywhere 
rise and overthrow this enemy of the human race (as 
he may fitly be called). An insurrection in his new 
capital of Daulatabad so disgusted him that he gave 
permission to the people of Delhi to return to their 
old homes. Thousands attempted the long journey ; 
but as the country was then suffering from a terrible 
famine, these pilgrims perished in large numbers, 
their dead bodies strewing the whole line of march 
between the two capitals, while most of those who 
succeeded in dragging their attenuated frames as far 
as the city of their affections died of exhaustion in 
its streets. 



A TYRANT AND A SCHOLAR. 85 

The Muhammadan governor of the Deccan threw 
off the Sultan's authority ; and the troops in Guzarat 
broke out into open mutiny. With his usual energy 
the Sultan suppressed this rising, and then hurried off 
to crush the hydra head of rebellion elsewhere. He 
was on the march towards the Indus when he was 
seized with a fever, attributed by his physicians to 
a surfeit of fish. At first no dangerous symptoms 
were observed ; but his impetuous temper goaded 
him into continuing his advance before he had com- 
pletely recovered. A fatal relapse took place ; and 
his subjects rejoiced at> their deliverance from a cruel 
oppressor. This was in 1351 ; so that, strange to 
say, though in the East the use of the dagger, the 
bowstring, and the poisoned cup was so common, he 
had been allowed to reign seven-and-twenty years. 

A traveller's tales. 

It was during this reign that the Arab traveller, 
Ibn Batuta, visited India. The obviously truthful 
and graphically simple description which he has left 
on record of all he saw and heard is full of interest. 
He fully confirms the native account both of the 



86 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT, 

king's abilities and his crimes, which were equally 
remarkable ; and of the mingled grandeur and deso- 
lation of the Empire, which reflected the twofold 
character of its ruler. While the disturbed condition 
of the country made travelling dangerous, he found 
an admirable postal service existing between the 
frontiers and the capital. He dwells enthusiastically 
on the splendours of Delhi, but though the Sultan 
was then rcpeopling it, it was almost a desert. " The 
greatest city in the world," he says, " has the fewest 
inhabitants." 

In the absence of the Sultan he was invited, along 
with other noble and learned strangers, to the court 
of the queen-mother, who received them courteously, 
entertained them hospitably, and on their departure 
presented them with robes of honour. A spacious 
residence was allotted to our traveller ; a liberal table 
was supplied every day ; and he was presented with a 
couple of thousand dinars " to pay for his washing." 
While staying at Delhi, he had the misfortune to lose 
his daughter. Her death was privately notified to 
the Sultan " by post " ; and at her funeral, to his 
great surprise, the wazir attended, and the ceremony 



A TYRANT AND A SCHOLAR. 8/ 

was similar in every detail to that which took place 
at the burial of a noble. The queen-mother sent for 
his wife, to condole with her, and gave her some rich 
dresses and ornaments. 

Ibn Batuta speaks with much warmth of the 
Sultan's exceeding graciousness and fine courtesy. 
On his return to Delhi, the traveller went out to meet 
him, and was accorded a very flattering reception. 
Muhammad afterwards appointed him a judge, ex- 
plaining to him in Arabic the duties of his office ; 
and when Ibn Batuta hesitated on account of his 
ignorance of the Hindu language, the Sultan, though 
evidently astonished at his presuming to raise diffi- 
culties, answered him with calmness, combated his 
argument, and finally settled the matter by assigning 
him a liberal salary. Afterwards he paid his debts to 
the amount of fifty-five thousand dinars, in response 
to an application for help which Ibn Batuta had 
ventured in the form of an Arabic poem. But the 
claws of the tiger soon made themselves felt. A 
dervish who dwelt near Delhi had incurred the 
Sultan's suspicion. He was immediately put to 
death, and everybody who had been accustomed to 



88 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

visit the man's cell was arrested and thrown into 
prison. Ibn Batuta was one of these unfortunates ; 
but he succeeded in appeasing his royal patron and 
convincing him of his innocence. The risk he had 
run, however, disgusted him with Delhi ; and he 
seized the earliest opportunity of resigning his post, 
expressing a desire to resume his travels. The 
Sultan, fortunately, took the matter good-temperedly, 
and instead of punishing his somewhat ungrateful 
guest, attached him to an embassy which he was 
despatching to the Chinese court at Pekin, 



CHAPTER IV. 

TIMUR THE TARTAR. 

TT was in 1398 that the Tartars first invaded India, 
under Pir Mahmud Jahanger, grandson of the 
great Mogul or Mughal sultan, Timur or Tamerlane. 
This irruption was formidable in itself, in the then 
enfeebled condition of the Delhi Empire ; but it was 
more formidable as the shadow of " coming events," 
as the precursor of the invasion of the terrible Timur 
himself, and the conquest of India by the Moguls. 

The story of Timur or Tamerlane the Great had 
a strong attraction for our forefathers, and was put 
on the stage in Elizabeth's reign by the powerful 
genius of Christopher Marlowe, who took it from 
Fortescue's " Foresti," a translation of Pedro Mexica's 
Spanish life of the great Tartar hero, — and from 
the " Vita Magni Tamerlanis " of Petrus Paudinus. 
His play was at once successful, and made Tamerlane 



go WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

a household word with Enghshmen for many genera- 
tions. I remember that, in my yaung days, " Timur 
the Tartar" was a favourite character on the trans- 
pontine stage, and also in the sheets of figures which 
boys bought for painting and tinselling, and adapting 
for performances in their miniature "theatres." 
Marlowe infused such a fervent, kindling, passionate 
life into his creation that its immortality is not to 
be wondered at. The fierce, restless warrior of the 
East he transformed into a passionate, poetic spirit, 
impelled to constant action by his unquenchable 
thirst for new things, new pleasures, new scenes, new 
triumphs : — 

"I will, with engines never exercised, 
Conquer, sack, and utterly consume 
Your cities and your golden palaces ; . . . 
And, till by vision or by speech 1 hear 
Immortal love say, ' Cease, my Tamburlaine,' 
I will persist, a terror to the world. 
Making the meteors (that, like armed men, 
Are seen to march upon the towers of Heaven), 
Run tilting round about the firmament, 
And break their burning lances in the air, 
For honour of my wondrous victories." 

Apart, however, from the exaggeration permissible 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 9I 

to the dramatic poet, the story ot Timur the Tartat 
breathes a living and romantic interest to which the 
reader cannot fail to respond. 

HIS BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 

According to his own account — which is confirmed 
by independent testimony — Timur (that is, " iron ") 
was the son of the chief of a Tartar tribe, and 
lineally descended on his mother's side from the 
famous Genghis Khan. He was born about 1330 
at Kesh (" The Green City "), forty miles from 
famous Samarcand. His birth, as Gibbon remarks, 
was cast on one of those periods of anarchy which 
precede the fall of Asiatic dynasties and open up 
a new field to the adventurous. His boyhood was 
spent, therefore, in an atmosphere of feud and strife, 
which prepared him for the storm and stress of his 
later career. He received the training usually given 
to the son and heir of a chief, — learned to ride the 
most spirited steeds, to bend the bow, to hurl the 
javelin, and how to order an army on the battle- 
field, according to the simple principles of Oriental 
strategy. When he reached the age of twenty, his 



92 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

father assigned to him a certain quota of flocks and 
slaves, which he managed for his own advantage. 
And in the following year he began his life of 
adventure by leading a body of mounted warriors 
against a predatory force which had broken into 
Transoxiana. 

The historian is of opinion that "the conquest 
and monarchy of the world" was the first object of 
Timur's ambition. " To live in the memory and 
esteem of future ages, was the second wish of his 
magnanimous spirit" But I think that in his earlier 
exploits we may fairly credit him with having obeyed 
a patriotic rather than an ambitious impulse. He 
had reached the age of twenty-five, when he under- 
took to deliver his country from the tyranny of the 
Kalmuks. 

In one of his battles with the enemy he received 
a wound in the thigh, which crippled him for life ; 
and thenceforward he was known as Timur lank^ 
or " lame Timur," corrupted by Europeans into 
Tamerlane. But the chiefs who had pledged them- 
selves to support him in his noble enterprise with 
their lives and fortunes now in the hour of danger 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 93 

stood aloof and inactive ; and after tarrying some 
days on the hills of Samarcand, waiting for rein- 
forcements, he rode away towards the desert with 
only sixty followers. It is said that, overtaken by 
a thousand Kalmuks, he defeated them with terrible 
slaughter ; so that even his enemies were compelled 
to exclaim, " Timur is a wonderful man ! Fortune 
is his, and the Divine favour." By this desperate and 
sanguinary conflict, however, his little force was re- 
duced to ten, and three of these having deserted, he 
wandered for weeks in the wilderness, with his wife, 
seven comrades, and four horses. Surprised by the 
enemy and taken prisoner, he was thrown into a 
loathsome dungeon, where he lay for fifty-three days 
and nights ; until, his wonderful energy of mind and 
body asserting itself anew, and sustained by his belief 
in a great and glorious future, he attempted and 
accomplished his escape. 

After swimming the broad swift stream of the 
Jihon, or Oxus, Timur led for some months a nomad 
life, passing through a series of remarkable adven- 
tures, which brought out all his latent powers — his 
sagacity, his clearness of perception, his promptitude 



94 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

of decision, his fertility of resource. Gradually he was 
joined by parties of his countrymen, who, attracted 
by the greatness of his character, were prepared to 
obey and serve him to the death. He describes in 
simple but forcible language what happened on one 
of these occasions, when he presented himself as a 
guide to three chiefs, who were in command of some 
seventy horsemen. " When their eyes fell upon me," 
he says, "they were overwhelmed with joy, and 
alighted from their steeds, and throwing themselves 
on their knees, kissed my stirrup. I too, hastened to 
dismount, and took each of them severally in my 
arms. And I put my turban on the head of the first 
chief ; and my girdle, rich in jewels and embroidered 
with gold, I bound about the loins of the second ; 
and the third I clothed in my own coat. And when 
they wept, 1 wept also, until the hour of prayer 
arrived, and we all knelt down and prayed. Then 
we mounted our horses, and rode to my dwelling, and 
I collected my people and made a feast." His force 
was soon augmented by the bravest men of the 
tribes, who proved irresistible when he led them 
against an enemy superior in num.bers, but inferior 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 95 

in valour and endurance ; and, after a severe and 
protracted struggle, in which the tide of war ebbed 
and flowed more than once, he drove the Kalmuks 
out of the territory they had invaded. 

HIS CONQUESTS. 

In 1369 Timur was made — or made himself — Khan 
of Zagatai, and fixed upon Samarcand as his capital. 
His success was encouraged and predicted by the 
native astrologers, who pretended that at his birth 
the planets had quitted their orbits, and bestowed 
on him the stupendous title of Sahib Keranor, or 
" Lord of Auspicious Conjunctions." Timur was 
not unwilling that his authority over his subjects 
should be strengthened by their superstition ; but his 
own intellect was too strong and clear to be misled 
by the jargon of the magicians. " I confide," he 
said, " in the assistance of the All- Powerful, who has 
never abandoned me. What avails the triplicity or 
conjunctions of the planets to me, who never delay 
the execution of my projects a single moment after 
I have taken the necessary measures for ensuring 
their success ? " Gradually extending his conquests, 



96 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCKNT. 

he conceived the idea of subjugating all the countries 
which had been included within the empire of 
Genghis Khan, and turned his arms in the first place 
against the Persian kingdom of Khorassan. From 
the Oxus to the Tigris, Persia had long been without 
a lawful sovereign ; and groaning under the injustice 
of numerous petty rulers, its people gladly welcomed 
an invader under whose stable government they 
might hope to enjoy tranquillity and order. These 
tyrants were jealous of one another, and instead of 
combining against the Tartar conqueror, encountered 
him separately, and separately fell — some submitting 
promptly, some after a brief and hopeless struggle. 
Thus, Ibrahim, prince of Shirwan, hastened to pay 
his homage, bringing with him offerings of silks, 
horses, and jewels, — each gift composed, according to 
the Tartar custom, of nine items, — except that, as a 
bystander remarked, there were only eight slaves. 
" Not so," replied the Prince ; " I am the ninth," and 
the adroit compliment drew a smile from the con- 
queror. On the other hand. Shah Mansur, Prince of 
Fars (or Persia proper), fought desperately to main- 
tain his independence. In a great battle under 



TIMUR THE TARTAR, 97 

the walls of Shiraz he with three or four thousand 
soldiers broke the coiil, or main body, of 30,000 
horse, where the emperor fought in person. Only- 
some fourteen or fifteen guards remained near 
Timur's standard. Timur himself stood firm as a 
rock, and received two weighty blows with a scimitar 
upon his helmet. The Moguls rallied, and then 
Mansur's head was thrown at Timur's feet. To 
show his esteem for Mansur's bravery he extirpated 
all male members of his family, the race being too 
intrepid for his plans. From Shiraz he led his army 
to the Persian Gulf/ and Ormuz, extremely rich 
though weak, paid a yearly tribute of 600,000 dinars 
of gold. Bagdad was no longer the seat of peace, 
the seat of the caliphs ; but the noblest conquest of 
Houlacou could not be overlooked by his ambitious 
successor. The whole course of the Euphrates and 
Tigris, from the sources to the mouths of these rivers, 
lay at his feet. He entered Edessa, and the Turk- 
mans of the black sheep were chastised for the 
sacrilegious pillage of a caravan of Mecca. In the 
mountains of Georgia the native Christians still 
braved the law and sword of Mahomet; by three 



98 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

expeditions he obtained the merit of the gazie or 
holy war, and the prince of Teflis became his proselyte 
and friend. 

A just retaliation might be urged for the invasion 
of Turkestan or Eastern Tartary. The dignity of 
Timur could not bear the impunity of the Getes : he 
passed the Jihon, subdued Kashgar, and marched 
seven times into the heart of their country. His 
most distant camp was two months' journey, or 480 
leagues, to the north of Samarcand, and his emirs, 
who traversed the river Irtish, engraved in the forests 
of Siberia a rude memorial of their exploits. The 
conquest of Kipzak, or Western Tartary, had the 
double motive of helping the distressed and punishing 
the ungrateful. He received and kept at his court 
Toctamish, a fugitive prince, and protected him. 
The ambassadors of Auruss Khan departed with a 
haughty denial, and the armies of Zagatai followed 
them immediately. Owing to their success Toctamish 
was established in the Mughal empire of the north. 
But the new khan forgot the merits and strength of 
his benefactor, and considered him the base usurper 
of the sacred rights of the house of Zingis. Through 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 99 

the gates of Derbend he led into Persia 90,000 horse ; 
with the innumerable forces of Kipzak, Bulgaria, 
Circassia, and Russia, he passed the Jihon, burnt 
Timur's palaces, and compelled him amidst the 
winter snow to contend for Samarcand and his life. 
After a mild expostulation and a glorious victory the 
emperor resolved on revenge, and by the east and 
west of the Caspian and the Volga he twice invaded 
Kipzak with such mighty powers that the distance 
from his right to his left wing measured thirteen 
miles. During a march of five months they 
rarely beheld the footsteps of man, and often the 
chase alone supplied their daily subsistence. At last 
the armies met. The treachery of the standard- 
bearer, who in the heat of action reversed the Imperial 
standard of Kipzak, determined the victory of the 
Zagatai, and Toctamish (to use the words of Timur's 
" Institutions ") gave the tribe of Toushi to the 
wind of desolation. He fled to the Christian duke of 
Lithuania, returned, however, again to the Volga, and 
after fifteen battles with a domestic rival perished in 
the wilds of Siberia. The pursuit of a flying enemy 
carried Timur into the tributary provinces of Russia. 



ICO WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

A duke of the reigning family fell a prisoner into his 
hands, and his capital was turned into ruins. Moscow- 
trembled at the approach of the Tartar, and resistance 
would have been feeble, since the Russians placed 
their hope in an image of the Virgin, which they 
believed had turned the enemy aside. Ambition and 
prudence, however, recalled Timur to the south: 
the desolate country was exhausted, and the Mughal 
soldiers were greatly enriched with immense spoil of 
precious furs, linen from Antioch, and ingots of gold 
and silver. On the banks of the Don (or Tanais) he 
received a humble deputation from the consuls and 
merchants of Egypt, Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and 
Biscay, who held the commerce and city of Tana 
(or Azoph) at the mouth of the river. They offered 
presents, admired his magnificence, and trusted to his 
royal word. Soon, however, an emir, on a peaceful 
journey, explored the country, the state of the 
magazines, and the harbour, and this visit was soon 
followed by the disastrous presence of the Tartars. 
The city was burnt to the ground, the Moslems were 
plundered, and sent away ; but all the Christians 
who had not taken refuge on board their ships were 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. lOI 

condemned either to death or slavery. Revenge 
incited him to burn the cities of Serai and Astra- 
khan,, the monuments of a progressive civiHsation ; 
and his vanity proclaimed that "he had penetrated 
to the region of perpetual daylight — a strange 
phenomenon, which authorised his Muhammadan 
doctors to dispense with the obligation of evening 
prayer." The Oriental historian remarks that the 
rays of the setting and those of the rising sun were 
scarcely separated by any interval — a statement 
which refers us to the latitude of Moscow "with 
the aid of the aurora borealis, and a long summer 
twilight." 

TIMUR'S invasion of INDIA. 

Not satisfied with having extended the supremacy 
of his arms from the Wall of China on the east to 
Moscow on the west, Timur, at the age of sixty-three, 
proposed to himself the invasion of India, ambitious 
of advancing beyond even the uttermost limits of 
the victories and conquests of Alexander the Great. 
When he first made known his design to his emirs 
and nobles, he was met with excited apprehensions : 



I02 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

" The rivers, and the mountains, and the deserts ! 
The soldiers clad in armour, and the elephants — 
destroyers of men ! " But Timur's iron will prevailed 
over a timidity which sprang in the main from igno- 
ranee. His keen eye had detected the inherent 
weakness of India, and he was well acquainted with 
the rebellion and discord which paralysed the energies 
of its princes. The facility with which his grandson, 
Pir Mahmud, had crossed the Indus, and pushed 
forward as far as Multan, convinced him that no 
opposition would be offered which his redoubtable 
horsemen could not easily overcome. 

At the head of an immense army, in three divisions, 
Timur set out from Kabul in August, 1398, and 
marched to Dinkot, on the Indus ; hailing it as a 
good omen that his ninety-two squadrons, each of a 
thousand horsemen, happily corresponded in number 
with the ninety-two names of the Prophet. 

Between the Jihon and the Indus he crossed one 
of those immense mountain-ranges which the Arabian 
geographers style " the stony girdles of the earth." 
The march was long, toilsome, and hazardous ; and 
though the mountaineers were easily subdued or 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. IO3 

extirpated, the natural obstacles were not so lightly 
overcome. Great numbers of men and horses 
perished in the snow, or fell down the icy declivities. 
At one point it was found necessary to lower Timur 
down a tremendous precipice on a portable platform. 
The ropes used for this purpose were one hundred 
and fifty cubits in length ; and before he could reach 
the bottom the dangerous process had to be five times 
repeated. 

Timur crossed the Indus on a bridge made of rafts 
'and bundles of reeds. He then advanced to the 
Hydaspes, along the banks of which he marched to 
Tulamba, where he levied on the inhabitants a large 
contribution. But without his orders, his troops 
broke into and sacked the unfortunate city, mas- 
sacring men, women, and children. Fire and sword 
marked his victorious advance — town after town was 
captured and razed to the ground, or occupied by a 
Tartar garrison — until, at length, he arrived in front 
of Delhi. Crossing the Jumna, with 700 cavalry, to 
reconnoitre its position, he was attacked by the 
Sultan Mahmud Tughlak, with 5,000 horse and 
29 elephants, but drove him back in great disorder 



104 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

and with heavy loss. At the beginning of the 
contest, when the difference of numbers seemed to 
point to Timur's speedy defeat, his prisoners, of whom 
there was a vast number in his camp, unwisely gave 
vent to shouts of premature exultation. When this 
was reported to the Destroyer (as the Hindus called 
him), he gave orders that every prisoner above the 
age of fifteen should be put to the sword. The 
Moslem historians assert that one hundred thousand 
perished ; but this number is an obvious and a gross 
exaggeration, for it would have been impossible for 
Timur to have fed them on the march, in addition 
to his mighty host of fighting men. 

Having crossed the Jumna, Timur encamped on 
the plain of Firuzabad, where the King of Delhi drew 
out his army to meet him — a splendid host of 10,000 
horsemen in full armour, 40,000 infantry, and 120 
elephants, whose tusks were equipped with sharp, 
poisoned daggers. Perceiving that his troops were 
somewhat dismayed by the formidable array of these 
huge animals, he caused his front to be protected by 
a ditch and a line of blazing fires, with rows of iron 
spikes, like a chevaux de frise, and a rampart of 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. IO5 

bucklers, but in the event these stratagems proved 
unnecessary. For, at the first charge of the Tartars, 
the elephants, deprived of most of their drivers, and 
irritated by the volleys of sharp arrows which rattled 
upon them like iron hail, wheeled round upon their 
own ranks and threw them into fatal disorder. Timur 
immediately ordered an advance of his whole force ; 
and the Hindus turned and fled, contending with one 
another who should be foremost in the flight, while 
the Tartar horsemen, with blood-red scimitars, rode 
in among the hindmost and covered the ground 
with corpses to the very gates of Delhi. The king 
escaped to Guzarat, and the inhabitants of Delhi 
made haste to surrender on condition that their lives 
were spared. 

Not ignorant of the savage temper of his warriors, 
Timur encamped them outside the city, and for some 
days restrained them from pillage or massacre. But 
it so happened that the Sultanas of his court were 
anxious to see the wonders of the famous city, and 
for this purpose were sent thither under a strong 
guard. The gates being left open, some fifteen thou- 
sand Tartars poured in almost at the same time. 



I06 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Plunder and violence 'were met by resistance; then 
the passions of an infuriated soldiery broke loose, and 
an indiscriminate massacre took place of men and 
women, of old and young ; the streets were soon 
rendered impassable by heaps of dead bodies ; every 
house reeked with blood, and for five days Delhi, in 
the hands of the merciless invaders, was one vast 
saturnalia of lust, rapine and murder Timur in real 
or affected indifference looked on at an outbreak he 
was probably powerless to repress ; and celebrated a 
sumptuous feast in honour of his victory, at which 
the princes he had conquered prostrated themselves 
before him. He was presented with two white 
parrots, which for seventy years had been transmitted 
from one sovereign to another as symbols or heir- 
looms of empire ; and tamed elephant and rhinoceros 
knelt in his presence as they had knelt in the presence 
of the native kings, uttering loud cries of salutation. 
And while his steeds were stabled in the imperial 
halls, and luxuriously fed upon bread and butter 
and sugar, with bowls of milk and rice ; while his 
blood-stained warriors pitched their tents in gardens 
hitherto sacred to the sleek beauties of the harem, 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 10/ 

his architects took plans and drawings of the great 
Mosque, which he desired to reproduce in his own 
city of Samarcand. 

On the last day of the year, having in this great 
marble mosque, which the shining waters of the 
Jumna reflected like a mirror, offered up to the 
Divine Majesty " the sincere and humble tribute of 
grateful praise," Timur the Destroyer began his 
homeward march. In seventy days he recrossed the 
Indus. Then entering Afghanistan, he made himself 
master of Kabul, and striking into the route by which 
he had entered India, returned in triumph to Samar- 
cand, after a laborious campaign, which had tested 
successfully his capacity as a commander, his physical 
vigour, and his strength of will. 

THE WAR WITH THE TURKS. 

The final episode in the career of this extraordinary 
man was his great war with Turkey, which originated 
in the personal rivalry and arrogance of himself and 
Bajazet, the Turkish Sultan. Neither advancing years 
nor the fatigues of numerous campaigns had weakened 
his energies of mind or body, nor had they quenched 



I08 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

the fire and fervour of his kindHng ambition ; so that 
it was almost with the elasticity of youth he entered, 
after a few months' rest in his palace at Samarcand, 
upon a new expedition. The warriors who had 
served under him beyond the Indus were allowed 
the option of again following his standard or remain- 
ing at home; but all the rest of the fighting men 
in his dominions were commanded to assemble at 
Ispahan. Thence he advanced into Georgia, which, 
after a fierce campaign, he completely subjugated. 
While he was engaged in consolidating this new 
conquest, messengers arrived from Bajazet with com- 
plaints that the Tartar sovereign was encroaching 
upon Turkish territory; and thus opened an angry 
correspondence which, for two years, fomented a 
fierce antipathy between two monarchs equally im- 
perious and resentful. As Gibbon epigrammatically 
puts it, Timur was impatient of an equal, and 
Bajazet ignorant of a superior. The tone and style 
of the missives which passed between them will be 
understood from the following example : — 

" Dost thou not know," writes Timur, " that the 
greater part of Asia is subject to our arms and our 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. IO9 

laws? That our invincible hosts extend from one 
sea to the other ? That the potentates of the earth 
form a Hne before our gates? And that we have 
compelled Fortune herself to watch over the pros- 
perity of our empire ? On what dost thou base thy 
insolence and folly? That thou hast fought some 
battles in the wilds of Anatolia? Contemptible 
victories ! Thou didst obtain some successes over the 
Christians of Europe, because thy sword was blessed 
by the Apostle of God ; and thy obedience to the 
precept of the Koran in waging war against the 
infidels is the sole consideration that prevents me 
from overthrowing thy kingdom — the frontier and 
bulwark of the world of Islam.. Be wise in time ; 
reflect ; repent ; and avert the thunder of our ven- 
geance which hangs suspended over thy head. Thou 
art but a pismire : why wilt thou seek to provoke 
the elephant ! Alas, he will trample thee under his 
feet!" 

Bajazet, in his reply, showed how deeply he was 
stung by his rival's unmeasured contempt. He de- 
nounced him as the robber and rebel of the desert ; 
and enumerating his triumphs in Iran, Turan and 



no WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

India, asserted that all the victories of Timur had 
been won through perfidious intrigues and the 
weakness of his foes. " Thou sayest thy armies are 
innumerable : be it so ! But what shall the arrows 
of the flying Tartar avail against the scimitars and 
battle-axes of my fierce and unconquerable janissaries? 
I will watch over the princes who have implored my 
protection : seek them in my tents. The cities of 
Arsinga and Erzeroum are mine ; and unless the 
tribute be duly paid, I will demand the arrears under 
the walls of Tauris and Sultania." 

In his first campaign (in 1400), Timur displayed 
his military power by the capture of Sebaste, a strong 
city on the borders of Anatolia. He razed it to the 
ground, and put to the sword its garrison of four 
thousand Armenians. Advancing into Syria, he was 
opposed at Aleppo by the Syrian emirs, at the head 
of their famous Mamelukes, who were posted in 
magnificent array in front of the walls. Timur 
covered his onset with a line of elephants, whose 
trunks were filled with archers and soldiers who threw 
the Greek fire. The disorders which their charge 
effected were augmented by the swift attacks of the 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. Ill 

Tartar horsemen and their storm of arrows, until the 
Syrians fell back defeated, and endeavoured to find 
shelter within the city. Many thousands, however, 
were stifled or slaughtered in crowding into the 
entrance to the main street. The Tartars forced 
their way in with the fugitives ; and, after a brief 
defence, the citadel of Aleppo, which was reported 
to be impregnable, surrendered to treachery or 
cowardice. 

Timur next laid siege to Damascus ; the resistance 
was honourable, but ineffectual ; and the beautiful 
city was reduced to ashes among its gardens and 
orchards. A similar fate befel Bagdad, the ancient 
seat of the Khalifate. It is pretended that he raised 
in the midst of its ruins a pyramid of 90,000 human 
heads. A second time he broke into Georgia ; and, 
encamping on the banks of the Araxes, made known 
to his nobles his design of challenging in arms the 
Ottoman Emperor. Well aware that he would be 
contending with no ordinary foe, he drew together 
the largest army he had yet put into the field. Its 
exact numerical strength, however, it is impossible 
to ascertain, owing to the hopeless exaggeration of 



112 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Oriental writers when dealing with figures. Thus 
they tell us that its front extended thirteen miles, and 
that it consisted of 800,000 infantry and cavalry. 
Similarly large figures are used in reference to the 
army of Bajazet. The general opinion of the 
historians seems to be that the Turks were more 
numerous than the Tartars ; perhaps we may esti- 
mate them at 120,000, and the latter at 100,000. 
What is certain is that their leader was greatly 
inferior to Timur in military capacity, and they them- 
selves to the Tartar warriors in military qualities. 

BATTLE OF ANGORA. 

The great conqueror of Asia anticipated the strategy 
of the great conqueror of Europe, four centuries later. 
Like Napoleon in his Prussian and Austrian cam- 
paigns, he resolved to strike at the heart of his 
enemy's kingdom, and there fight a decisive battle. 
From the Araxes he advanced, therefore, through 
the provinces of Armenia and Anatolia, guarding 
his adventurous march by every possible precaution. 
He threw out a cloud of scouts in front and on 
either flank ; while strong detachments were advanced 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. II3 

to seize and occupy every important ford, pass, and 
defile. Leaving the Ottoman camp on the right, 
he threw a garrison into Caesarea, crossed the salt 
marshes and the river Halys ; and while Bajazet, 
immovable in his camp and ignorant, was ridiculing 
what he supposed to be the tardy progress of his 
great adversary, the sentinels on the walls of Angora 
were startled by the clang of his kettledrum, and 
looking forth beheld the green standard of Islam 
borne at the head of his formidable warriors. 

Then, indeed, Bajazet awoke from his arrogant 
supineness, and setting in motion his armed host — 
his janissaries and his spahis, his black cuirassiers 
and his Anatolians — he advanced slowly to the 
relief of Angora. In front of the city was fought 
the tremendous battle which crushed for a time the 
Ottoman power. Beginning on July 28th, it was 
protracted over three days. On the third, Bajazet 
fled from the lost field, but was pursued and taken 
prisoner by the Khan of Zagatin, and conducted 
into the presence of his conqueror, who received him 
courteously, seated him by his side, and addressed 
him in dignified language: "Alas!" he exclaimed, 



114 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

" the decree of Fate is now accomplished through 
your own fault ; you are caught in the web which 
you yourself have woven, your hands are pricked 
with thorns from the tree which you yourself have 
planted. I wished to spare, and even to assist, the 
champion of Islam : you defied our threats, you 
contemned our friendship, you forced us to invade 
your kingdom with our invincible armies. Behold 
the issue ! Had you conquered, I am not ignorant 
of the fate to which you destined me and my troops. 
But I disdain to retaliate : your life and honour are 
secure ; and I shall express my gratitude to God 
by my clemency to man." 

The royal prisoner showed some signs of regret, 
accepted the humiliation of a robe of honour, and 
embraced with tears his son Mousa, who, at his 
request, had been sought and found among the 
captives. A splendid pavilion was assigned to 
the Ottoman princes for their accommodation, and 
their guards were not less respectful than vigilant. 
During the magnificent " feast of victory," to which 
Bajazet was invited, Timur placed in the latter's hand 
a sceptre and on his head a crown, and promised to 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. II5 

restore him with an increase of glory to the throne 
of his ancestors. He was prevented from fulfilling 
his promise by the Sultan's death, which took place 
at Akshehr, the Antioch of Pisidia, about nine 
months after his defeat. The story that Timur 
confined him in an iron cage, and carried him as 
a living trophy on all his marches, is now discredited 
by most historians ; and explained by others as 
referring to a Byzantine litter, inclosed with bars, 
such as was generally used for the conveyance of 
state prisoners on long journeys. 

We must add an anecdote of their first interview. 
Timur, it is said, after regarding his prisoner atten- 
tively, and perceiving that he was blind of an eye, 
burst out laughing. " You laugh at my disgrace," 
said the Sultan, proudly ; " but remember, it might 
have befallen you just as soon as myself God is 
the Disposer of events, and it is He who distributes 
them." " I do not doubt it," replied Timur, " and 
it is not your misfortune at which I laugh, but at 
the idea which crossed my mind on examining 
you. States must, I thought, be of little importance 
in the eyes of God, when He is willing that a 



Il6 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

lame man should enjoy what He had given to a 



bh'nd. 



AT SAMARCAND. 



Flushed with victory, Timur, after pushing his 
conquests to the shore of the Bosphorus, returned 
to Samarcand, from which he had been four years 
and nine months absent He made a full display 
of his power and magnificence ; listened to the 
petitions of his subjects ; distributed rewards or 
punishments with impartiality, and received in 
audience the ambassadors of Egypt, Arabia, India, 
Tartary, Russia, and Castile — the last of whom pre- 
sented a suit of tapestry surpassing the handiwork 
of Oriental artists. The marriage of six of his grand- 
sons was made the occasion of a gorgeous festival, 
which extended over two months ; and during this 
joyous season the Green Palace, where state prisoners 
were killed or blinded, closed its dread portals, while 
the Porcelain Pavilion and the Purple Gates and the 
Imperial Gardens were open to all comers. Timur 
insisted that every one of his subjects should share 
in his ostentatious rejoicing. " This is the time," 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 11/ 

he announced, "for feasting, pleasure, and revelry. 
Let no one murmur or complain of another — let not 
the rich encroach upon the poor, nor the powerful 
upon the weak ; let none ask another, * Why have 
you done thus ? ' " Whole forests were felled to dress 
the viands for the banquet, pyramids of meat were 
piled up, and rivers of koumis, wine, and other 
liquors poured out, for the entertainment of thou- 
sands of guests. " The orders of the state, and the 
nations of the earth," says the Oriental historian, 
"were marshalled at the feast; neither were the 
ambassadors of Europe excluded, for even the casseSy 
the smallest of fish, have their place in the ocean." 

Illuminations and masquerades bore witness to 
the popular enthusiasm. The trades of Samarcand 
paraded before the Sultan, each trade distinguished 
by some quaint and appropriate device or pageant. 
After the judicial authorities had duly ratified the 
marriage-contracts, bridegrooms and brides retired 
to their nuptial chambers ; nine times, according to the 
Arab fashion, were dressed and undressed ; at each 
change of apparel, pearls and rubies were showered 
on their heads, but with magnificent extravagance 



Il8 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

were left for the attendants to appropriate. A 
general indulgence was proclaimed ; law was re- 
laxed, pleasure made universal ; the sovereign ceased 
to rule, and his subjects to tremble ; and Timur's 
panegyrist may remark that, after devoting fifty years 
to the attainment of empire, he enjoyed only the two 
months of his life in which he forbore to exercise 
his power (A.D. 1404). 

THE CASTILIAN AMBASSADORS AT TIMUR'S 
COURT. 

Among the guests on this memorable occasion 
were some Spaniards who had come on an embassy 
from Don Henry, king of Castile and Leon. 

Early in 1402 Don Henry, a sovereign of great 
capacity, with a boundless thirst for knowledge, had 
despatched a couple of his cavaliers, Payo de 
Sotomayor and Sanchez de Palazuelos, to inquire 
into the relative military strength and resources of 
Bajazet, the Turkish Sultan, and Timur, his great 
adversary. They arrived in time to witness the 
crushing defeat of Bajazet on the field of Angora. 
Afterwards they were received at the victor's court, 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. II9 

and having been splendidly entertained and loaded 
with presents, returned well-pleased to Spain, accom- 
panied by Muhammad Alcaji, who carried a letter 
and some costly gifts from Timur to the king of 
Castile. It is hardly necessary to say that the Tartar 
ambassador had no reason to complain of his recep- 
tion ; and when the time arrived for his homeward 
journey, Don Henry sent with him three special 
envoys to convey his congratulations to the great 
Mughal conqueror : these were Fray Alonzo de 
Santa Maria, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, and Gomez 
de Salasar. 

They sailed from Cadiz on May 22nd, 1403 ; 
wintered at Pera ; and in the spring of 1404 arrived 
at Trebizond, whence, escorted by Tartar cavalry, 
they proceeded on their way to Samarcand. All 
along the road supplies were abundant, and furnished 
them free of cost ; for at each town where they 
halted, small carpets were brought for them to sit 
upon, and then in front of them a piece of leather 
was laid down, and upon this piece of leather the 
townsfolk hastened to deposit their gratuitous but 
compulsory contributions of bread, meat, fruit, cream, 



I20 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

milk, and eggs. If at any time the quantity were 
found insufficient, Timur's officers summoned the 
chief men of the place, and after a liberal allowance 
of whips and sticks, compelled them to make up the 
deficiency without delay. 

On May 4th they arrived at Arsinga, where they 
obtained from the governor a good deal of useful 
information. 

They were warned, for instance, not to speak of 
the great Mughal conqueror as Tamerlane, or Timur 
the cripple — which was, indeed, a disrespectful nick- 
name — but as Timur Beg, or the Iron Lord. They 
were also enlightened — at least from the governor's 
point of view — on the origin of the recent war 
between Turk and Tartar. This was his expla- 
nation : — Zuratan, prince or chief of Arsinga, pos- 
sessed some land adjacent to the Turkish frontier 
on which Bajazet had cast a covetous glance ; and 
one day he suddenly demanded that Zuratan should 
pay him tribute, and give up to him his castle of 
Kamoj. Zuratan appealed for assistance to Timur — 
who was then engaged in war with Persia— at the 
same time acknowledging him as his lord. There- 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 121 

Upon Timur intimated to Bajazet that the chief of 
Arsinga was under his protection. " The haughty 
soldier " (as our forefathers called him) was indignant 
that a Mughal chief should make so light of his 
authority, and declared that no man durst stand 
between him and Zuratan or any other of his slaves, 
and that, when a convenient time came, he would 
march against Timur and put him into chains. 
Timur replied by a rapid advance into Turkey, 
capturing, plundering, and destroying the city of 
Sabastia ; after which he returned to the theatre of 
war in Persia. This bold defiance was straightway 
taken up by Bajazet, who marched into the territory 
of Arsinga, and was sweeping it like a simoom, when 
he was attacked by Timur, as we have seen, at 
Angora, and completely crushed. 

Resuming their journey, the Castilian ambassadors 
passed through the fortified town of Erzeroum ; 
Dulularquente, peopled by Moorish hermits ; and 
the great city of Calmaim, one league from Mount 
Ararat, "the first city built in the world after the 
Flood," In the third week in June they arrived at 
Sultania, a populous town, with a strong castle. 



122 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

" This land," says Don Clavijo, " is so hot that when 
a foreign merchant is struck by the sun, he is killed ; 
and they say that when the sun strikes any person, it 
immediately penetrates to his heart and slays him ; 
and those who escape nearly always remain quite 
yellow, and never regain their proper complexion. 
From Cathay vessels come," he adds, " within sixty 
days' journey of the town, having navigated the 
western sea. The ships and boats which sail in these 
waters have no iron, their timbers being joined with 
cords and wooden pegs, for if they were fastened 
together with iron, they would be torn to pieces by the 
loadstones^ of which there are many in that seaP 

Hearing that Timur was waxing impatient for 
their arrival, the envoys pushed on more rapidly, 
but Gomez de Salasar, falling ill, had to be left 
behind, and the treatment of the native doctors 
killed him. Having crossed the Oxus, the envoys 
rested a day or two at Timur's native town of 
Kesh, a large mud-walled town, containing two great 
mosques, one the burial-place of Timur's father and 
his own firstborn son, and the other intended, in 
due time, to be the mausoleum of the conqueror 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 1 23 

himself. Here they were joined by the amba!)Sadors 
of the Sultan of Babylon ; and in a few days they 
entered Samarcand, at three o'clock in the afternoon. 
Passing under a high gateway, radiant with blue 
and golden tiles, and guarded by foot-soldiers armed 
with maces, and others mounted on towered ele- 
phants, they halted in front of a shining fountain, 
which sent up its silver columns " with red apples 
in them " — probably ivory balls — to a great height. 
Behind it, sitting cross-legged on a soft pile of 
embroidered carpets and pillows, was a man of fine 
and imposing aspect, though grey-haired, lame, and 
half-blind, Timur Beg. He was clothed in silken 
robes, and wore a high white hat, or caftan, on the 
top of which blazed a great spiral ruby, set round 
with pearls and other precious stones. 

After making their obeisances, by bending one 
knee to the ground and inclining the head, the 
Spanish envoys were taken up under the arms of the 
Mirzas, or councillors, and conducted severally into 
the conqueror's presence. This was done to the end 
that he might see them better, his eyelids having 
drooped through old age. " How is my son the 



124 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

King ? Is he well ? " was his greeting ; and having 
received a satisfactory reply, he addressed himself 
to the circle of councillors and courtiers, saying, — 
" Behold ! here are the ambassadors of my son, the 
King of Spain, who is the most powerful King of the 
p>anks, and lives at the end of the world. These 
Franks are truly a great people, and I will give my 
benediction to the King of Spain, my son 1 It would 
have sufficed if he had sent the letter without the 
presents, so well satisfied am I to hear of his health 
and prosperous state." 

Due reply having been made to these compliments 
by Clavijo and his companion, they were ushered 
into the banqueting chamber, where many other 
strangers from far lands were seated, and by Timur's 
express instructions were accorded precedency over 
the ambassador from the Celestial Empire. When 
the lord had taken his place, in came a number of 
attendants carrying boiled and roasted sheep and 
roasted horses, which they laid upon broad dishes 
of stamped leather. And on these the carvers knelt 
and with sharp blades cut up the steaming carcases, 
and with the pieces filled huge bowls of gold and 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 1 25 

silver, glass and earthenware ; reserving the daintiest 
viand — a compound of sheep's heads, horses' tripe, 
and haunches of horse — for half a score of the finest 
gold and silver bowls, two of which were set before 
Fray de Santa Maria and Gonzalez de Clavijo. 
Then rose a sound of revelry by night, and Timur 
and his guests feasted heartily, each man pouring 
a small quantity of salted soup into his bowl, and 
breaking up into it a thin wheaten cake. The bill 
of fare was diversified by meats dressed in various 
ways, by nectarines, grapes, and melons ; while gold 
and silver jugs, brimful of bosat, a beverage made 
from sugar and cream, were passed round with 
frequent repetition. When the guests could eat and 
drink no more, they rose up and went their way, 
each taking with him whatever remained of his share 
of the feast — a share so liberal that the Castilians 
found themselves supplied for six months. Similar 
banquets were of almost daily occurrence ; and the 
Castilians attended them all with the dignified 
gravity of their nation. Timur, however, was de- 
sirous of seeing them under a more cheerful aspectj 
and for this purpose resolved to give a feast at which 



126 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

wine should be served ; and that they might duly 
prepare for " tipsy mirth and jollity," he sent them 
a jar of good wine to raise their spirits beforehand. 

A stringent edict prohibited Timur's subjects from 
drinking wine in public or private without his royal 
permission. When this was obtained, the thirsty 
Tartars made ample amends for their compulsory 
abstemiousness. " The attendants," says Don Clavijo, 
"serve the wine upon their knees, and when one 
cup is empty fill another, and that is their sole duty. 
As soon as an attendant grows fatigued with the 
cup-filling, his place is taken by another, no attendant 
serving more than one or two of the guests ; who, 
if they refuse to drink, are informed that by doing 
so they insult 'the lord,' at whose request the wine 
is sent round. They empty the cup at two or three 
draughts, unless they are called upon to drink by 
* their love to their lord,' when they must toss it off 
at a single draught, without leaving a drop." A 
guest receiving a cup from Timur's own hands, first 
knelt on the right knee, then, moving forward a little, 
sank on both knees : taking the cup, he rose and 
walked backwards a few paces, knelt again, and 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 1 27 

disposed of the wine at once. Don Clavijo escaped 
the performance of this tedious ceremony, as well as 
the hard drinking at the dinner table, because he 
never drank wine under any circumstances. 

The palace which Timur had built for himself 
outside the walls of Samarcand commanded a fair 
view of a broad, open plain, brightened by a full 
flowing river and by several streams. Desirous of 
impressing his foreign visitors with the extent of his 
military resources, he caused his shining pavilion, 
with its silken banners, to be pitched in the middle 
of the plain, and ordered his captains to marshal 
there his armies. From east and west, from north 
and south, they came : and with such alacrity of 
movement that in three days thirty thousand horse- 
men, fully equipped, were encamped upon the plain, 
each man falling into his proper place with the 
greatest readiness. And the manner of their array 
was this : over every hundred men was set a captain, 
over every thousand men a captain, over every ten 
thousand men a captain, and a chief captain over 
all. 

Just at the beginning of the military display, some 



128 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

excitement was occasioned by the arrival of an 
embassy from a land bordering on Cathay, and once, 
indeed, belonging to it. The chief ambassador wore 
a coat of skins, by no means of the newest, with a 
hat so small that it would hardly go over his head, 
fastened to his breast by a cord. His companions 
also wore dresses of skin, and had a general re- 
semblance to " a party of blacksmiths." The scene 
around them must have moved their surprise and 
admiration. All along the river-side were pitched 
the soldiers' tents in regular rows or alleys, and 
parallel with these were rows of tents belonging 
to the traders of Samarcand, who, by their lord's 
orders, had brought their wares to the camp for sale. 
The plain seemed a mass of tents of various colours 
and with different insignia, and high above all 
towered Timur's spacious pavilion, three lances in 
height and a hundred paces in breadth, with a silken 
turret surmounting its decorated vaulted roof, from 
which depended silken cloths fastened arcade-wise 
to twelve gilded and painted columns of the girth 
of a man's chest. The sides of the pavilion were of 
black, white, and yellow silk ; and at a distance of 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 1 29 

three hundred paces it was surrounded by a silken 
wall, and in the intermediate space were the tents 
of Timur's wives and of other members of his 
household. 

There was something else to be seen by the envoys 
from the east and the west who had met at Timur's 
court : for that part of the plain which had been 
assigned to the traders was thickly studded with 
gibbets. Wherever the great King went, he was 
accompanied by his judges, who in their own tents 
inquired into the cases brought before them, hearing 
the evidence, examining the accused, and reporting 
the judgments they arrived at to Timur, who alone 
pronounced sentence. In this way justice was 
promptly administered, but it was justice of the 
sternest sort, and not often tempered with mercy. 
Even crimes of a light character were visited with 
severe punishments. A trader who charged for his 
goods more than they were worth expiated the 
offence on the gallows. An official accused of 
neglect of duty was beheaded ; so also was the chief 
who had ventured to intercede on his behalf ; so also 
was a man who had been entrusted with the charge 



130 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

of three thousand horses, and could not produce 
every one at a very brief notice. For delaying the 
appearance of the Spaniards at a State banquet, 
their interpreter was condemned to have a rope 
passed through his nostrils, and to be dragged by it 
round the camp ; and it was with no small difficulty 
the envoys procured the poor man's pardon. 

While the soldiers were in camp, races, acrobatic 
performances, and other entertainments were given 
for the general amusement. On one occasion, the 
queen, or Sultana, was present. Kano {i£. "the 
lady ") was a tall and stately dame, clothed in loose- 
flowing robes of red silk, embroidered with gold lace, 
— wearing a head-dress of such colossal proportions 
that three of her ladies were constantly employed in 
keeping it in its place, and a train of such dimensions 
that it took fifteen ladies to adjust and support it so 
that its wearer might walk. Timur had seven other 
wives, respectively named " Ouerchicano " (the little 
lady), " Oiicoltange," " Mundagaso," " Vengaraza," 
" Chilpamalaga," " Ropaarbaraga," and " Gangurajo," 
or Queen of the Heart, who seems to have been 
the aged Sultan's favourite. 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. I3I 

Clavijo and his companion, when their curiosity 
was more than satisfied, became anxious to return 
home ; but durst not set out until they had obtained 
the great Amir's permission. While they were 
waiting for it, he was struck down with paralysis. 
Much troubled, they repeatedly pressed his counsel- 
lors to give them some answer or message for their 
sovereign ; but this was beyond their power, and to 
the frequent entreaties of the envoys they would give 
no other answer than that it would be well for them 
to depart while there was yet time. At last the two 
Spaniards deemed it wise to act upon this friendly 
advice ; and hurrying away from Samarcand, they 
made haste to cross the frontier of Turkey, before 
the news of the Amir's death should be noised 
abroad. Their journey proved to be a prosperous 
one, and they reached Spain in safety, furnished 
with an ample supply of " travellers' tales " (a.D. 
1408). 

Clavijo's statement * that the Amir was stricken 

* Clavijo's narrative is entitled — " Historia del Grand Tamer- 
Ian e dinarario y manaceon del viago y relacion de la Em- 
basador quy Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo le hijo par mandedo del 



132 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

with palsy does not correspond with the narratives 
of the old historians. Gibbon, who car^ully com- 
pared them, states that, when the festivities were at 
an end, Timur unfurled his standard for the invasion 
of China. Two hundred thousand of his choicest 
warriors began their march, their baggage and pro- 
visions conveyed by five hundred great waggons and 
an immense train of horses and camels. Neither the 
pressure of years nor the severity of winter could 
tame his impatient spirit. He mounted on horse- 
back, passed the Jihon on the ice, and had advanced 
three hundred miles from his capital, and pitched 
his camp in the neighbourhood of Otrar, when he 
was seized with a mortal fever, of which he expired 
in the seventieth year of his age. He met his fate 
with calmness. " At night, between evening prayer 
and bedtime, he several times made profession of his 
belief, ' There is no other god than God.' Then he 
surrendered his soul to the angel Azrael, who called 
him in these words : ' Oh soul, that hopest in God, 

miiy podereso Senor Ruy don Enrique a fiiana di Castilla- 
Sevilia," 1582. See also Mariana, Historia Hispanice, 1. 19, 
c. II, tome ii., pp. 329,330. 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. 1 33 

return to thy Lord with resignation. We belong to 
God ; to Him we must return ! ' " 

The chief authorities for the life of this remarkable 
man are the histories by Sherefeddin and Arabshah 
(the latter coloured by a venomous prejudice), that 
by Ferishta, the Persian, and Timur's own auto- 
biography in the " Institutions," " Malfuzat Timure," 
translated by Major Stewart. Of the last, Elphin- 
stone remarks that " it is written in the plain and 
picturesque style of Turki autobiography ; and if 
there were a doubt tHat it was from his dictation, 
it would be removed by the unconscious simplicity 
with which he relates his own intrigues and perfidy, 
taking credit all the time for an excess of goodness 
and sincerity which the boldest flatterer would not 
have ventured to ascribe to him. The mixture also 
of cant and hypocrisy with real superstition and 
devotion could not have been exhibited by any hand 
but his own ; and these traits, with his courage, 
prudence, and address, his perfect knowledge of 
mankind, and his boldness in practising on their 
weakness, make one of the most extraordinary 
pictures ever presented to the world." 



134 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Timur was a remarkable, and in some respects 
a great man. It is true that, though a successful 
warrior, he made few permanent conquests ; that 
his empire died with him ; that he founded nothing ; 
that he destroyed and did not reconstruct ; but 
elaborate systems of government and polity are not 
to be expected from a Tartar chief, bred up among 
the wild tribes of Transoxiana. And it would be 
folly to deny to one who achieved all that Timur 
achieved, who extended his rule over so vast a region, 
who asserted the supremacy of his arms over so 
many nations, who controlled his turbulent subjects 
with so firm a hand throughout so long a reign, the 
possession of many of the qualities of greatness — 
such as foresight, patience, tenacity of purpose, wealth 
of resource, and immense vigour both of mind and 
body. 

Though a cripple, Timur was not unworthy in 
form and stature of the leadership of men : he was 
large-limbed, with massive shoulders and broad chest, 
a capacious head and wide high forehead, with eyes 
full of fire, a fair complexion, and an ample beard. 
Notwithstanding his enormous fatigues, his temper- 



TIMUR THE TARTAR. I35 

ance, activity and robust constitution preserved his 
health even to his last years. In his discourse with 
his friends and courtiers he was grave and modest ; 
and though ignorant of Arabic, he spoke Persian 
and Turkish with fluency and elegance. He de- 
lighted to converse with the learned on topics of 
history and science ; and the amusement of his 
leisure hours was the game of chess, to which he 
added new refinements (or, as some say, corruptions). 
In religion he was a zealous but not an orthodox 
Muhammadan, and it was probably from policy 
rather than credulity that he sometimes affected to 
believe in the prophecies of saints and astrologers. 
For good or evil — or mixed good and evil — he made 
a mark in history which will not readily be effaced ; 
and for generations to come the world will dwell with 
wondering interest on the extraordinary career and 
character of TiMUR THE TARTAR. 



BOOK II. 

THE GREAT MOGULS, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 

'^ I "HE Emperor Babar, who founded the Mogul or 
Mughal empire in India, the last representative 
of which died in 1862, a British state-prisoner at 
Rangoon, was the fifth in descent from the great 
conqueror Timur. 

As he was the first of the Mughal sovereigns, so 
was he the best — the loftiest-minded, the purest, 
the humanest, the most sincere. He was as chival- 
rous as any of the Paladins of old romance ; and, 
in truth, a romantic element coloured his character 
and pervaded his life. 

The extensive territories of hjs grandfather, 

Abusaid, were divided at his death among his 

numerous sons. To the fourth, Omar, father of 

Babar, fell the small but fair and fertile country of 
10 



140 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Ferghana, in the upper valley of the Jaxartes. 
Babar's mother was of Mughal descent; she was a 
descendant of Genghis Khan ; but the relationship 
did not foster very affectionate feelings on her son's 
part towards the Mughal nation, of which he invari- 
ably spoke with strong and contemptuous antipathy. 
It is strange, therefore, and one of the ironies of fate,, 
that the empire which he founded in India should 
have been called both by Hindus and by Europeans 
the empire of the Moguls or Mughals, thus taking 
its name from a race its founder detested. The 
reason is that it was so named by Babar's native 
subjects, who designated as Mughals all the un- 
shorn Muhammadans, with the exception of the 
Afghans, 

BABAR IN HIS YOUTH. 

Babar was only twelve when he succeeded to his 
father's principality, and to a war in which his father 
had been involved with two of his brothers (1494) 
With the proverbial ill-feeling of uncles, they refused 
to listen to Babar's peaceful overtures, and advanced 
against his capital. They were defeated, however, and 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." I4I 

one of them, Ahmed Mirza, dying soon afterwards, 
Babar, though only fifteen, resolved to attempt the 
conquest of Samarcand. The first time he failed ; 
the second he was successful. But his boyish ambi- 
tion had overleaped his resources. He was unable to 
maintain his position for want of funds to pay the 
arrears due to his soldiers, who deserted him, there- 
fore, in large numbers ; and a rebellion breaking out 
in Ferghana, he was compelled to abandon Samar- 
cand after a reign of one hundred days. An 
inopportune illness so delayed the boy-warrior's 
movements that Ferghana was lost to him. He then 
appealed to his Mughal uncle, and, with such assist- 
ance as he could wring from his reluctant hands 
and his own inexhaustible energies, made repeated 
and not wholly unsuccessful expeditions against 
Samarcand and Ferghana. In 1499 he recovered 
Ferghana ; but the revolt was still smouldering when 
he was tempted by strong invitations from Samar- 
cand to direct his forces thither. Before he reached 
that capital, he learned that both it and Bokhara had 
been occupied by the Uzbeks, and that in his absence 
the rebels of Ferghana had again got the upper hand. 



142 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Then, without a rood of land to call his own, the 
young prince escaped into the wild mountainous 
districts south of his patrimonial inheritance. " I 
lived," he says, " in the house of one of the head men 
of the place. He was an aged man, seventy or eighty 
years old. His mother was still alive, and had 
attained an extreme old age, being about a 
hundred and eleven. One of his kinsmen had 
accompanied the army of Timur Beg when he 
invaded Hindustan. The incident remained fresh in 
her memory, and she often told us stories about it." 
It was these stories — stories ol stately temples and 
jewelled shrines, of populous cities and crowded 
marts, of mighty rivers and vast fertile plains — which 
first kindled in the youth's active imagination the 
idea of rivalling his ancestor Timur and accom- 
plishing the conquest of India. 

He records a dream which he had one night while 
he lay concealed among the mountains, a dream 
which his friends and he himself invested with 
prophetic significance. He dreamed that Abdallah, 
a dervish renowned for his sanctity, called at his 
house, and that he (Babar) invited him to sit down, 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 143 

while a table-cloth was spread before him. The 
dervish, apparently offended, rose to go away. Babar 
sought to detain him, whereupon the dervish seized 
his arm and lifted him up towards the sky. 

Ascertaining that the Uzbek chief had left 
Samarcand on an expedition, he determined to essay 
its recapture ; with two hundred and forty ill-armed 
followers, he scaled the walls in the night, over- 
powered the guards, and by the swift audacity of his 
enterprise produced so great an impression that the 
admiring citizens declared on his side, and massacred 
the Uzbeks wherever they were to be found. But he 
was again driven from the capital, and for nearly 
two years experienced the most startling vicissitudes 
of fortune— at one time a prince on his throne, at 
another a suppliant at his uncle's court, and yet 
again a wanderer in the wooded defiles of the 
mountains. 

He had nearly reconquered Ferghana, when 
the Uzbek chief advanced against him with his 
hordes, besieged Akshi, the capital, and effected its 
capture. Behold Babar a fugitive beyond the snow- 
capped masses of the Hindu Kush ! 



144 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

A ROMANTIC CAREER. 

His sufferings and his experiences, his successes 
and his failures, had already been sufficient to have 
filled up the history of an eventful life, and yet he 
was only in his twenty-third year. 

The elasticity of his disposition, however, was not 
to be crushed by adverse fortune. It is true that in 
his autobiography he speaks of having shed frequent 
tears and composed many melancholy ditties ; but 
generally he was sanguine and hopeful, and rose up 
after each downfall with a firmer conviction than ever 
that he would eventually succeed. He seems never 
to have looked back ; his eye was always on the 
future. He had a fine facility for making the best 
of everything, and where any pleasure was available 
did his best to have a proper share of it. He tells us 
that he never enjoyed himself more thoroughly than 
after his last escape from Samarcand, when again for 
a brief interval he tasted the luxury of ample meals 
and sound sleep and freedom from anxiety and labour. 
Babar was the most genial of conquerors ; no 
Oriental warrior ever had tastes more innocent. He 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 145 

would halt on a victorious march to examine a new 
species of melon. In his few hours of leisure he 
revelled in gardening and his plants. In his most 
difficult campaigns he never lost his interest in the 
beauty of the landscape, the colouring of a group of 
flowers, the delicate structure of some new leaf At 
the bottom of his heart lay a little spring of pure 
and unadulterated poetry. Babar enjoyed life, and 
all that life brings with it of beauty, sweetness, and 
grace. 

Believing himself born to a great destiny, he looked 
around at this time to discover in what direction lay 
the best chance of realising it ; and his keen eye was 
soon attracted by the anarchy that reigned in the 
green valleys of Kabul. His uncle, Ulugh Beg, the 
king of that country, had died about two years 
before ; his son and successor, Babar's cousin, had 
been deposed by his minister, who in his turn had 
been expelled by the Mughal or Turki family of 
Arghun, then in possession of Kandahar. Sweeping 
across the mountain passes with a large force which 
had been attracted to his standard by his fame as a 
daring leader, Babar occupied Kabul almost without 



146 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

opposition ; and though Ulugh Beg's son was still 
alive, ignored his claims and ruled by right of 
conquest. He found his throne by no means " a bed 
of roses." Externally his old enemy, the chief of 
the Uzbeks, threatened invasion ; internally he was 
confronted by independent tribes, by false friends and 
personal foes. His title to his crown lay only in his 
sword ; he had no minister on whom he could rely ; 
and his army was composed of mercenaries, who 
would sell their services to the highest bidder. But 
no difficulties or dangers could break down Babar's 
indomitable spirit. He entered upon the conquest of 
Kandahar, subdued the hostile tribes of the moun- 
tains, and accomplished a daring march to Herat, 
to concert measures with that branch of the house 
of Timur for their common defence against the 
Uzbeks. 

While he was absent on the banks of the Indus 
in 1508, the Mughal garrison of Kabul revolted, and 
placed on the musnud Abd-ur-Razzak, the son of 
Ulugh Beg. Once more the fortunes of Babar were 
at zero ! But his soul never yielded for a moment. 
Here was a fresh opportunity of proving his superi- 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." I47 

ority to hostile circumstances. It was Babar against 
fortune, and Babar did not intend to be beaten. 
Forced marches carried him back to Kabul, where 
he was opposed by Abd-ur-Razzak with i2,coo men. 
Furious at the treachery of warriors who had par- 
taken of his salt, he rode right up to their ranks, 
denounced their crimes, and defied their lord to 
mortal com.bat. Abd-ur-Razzak showed no desire to 
cross swords with a rival who could swim the Ganges 
in three-and-thirty strokes, and with a man under 
each arm could leap from platform to platform of 
the terraced ramparts of the East ; but five of his 
omrahs advanced in succession to accept the challenge, 
and five in succession fell beneath Babar's conquering 
arm. Moved to intense admiration by this deed 
of "derring-do," and ashamed of their leader's 
cowardice, the Mughals returned to their old standard, 
and Babar once more reigned in Kabul 

HIS CONQUEST OF INDIA. 

Babar now revived his schemes of Indian conquest, 
and in 1524 a great opportunity was offered of carry- 
ing them out, which he did not suffer to escape him. 



148 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Ibrahim Lodi, then King of Delhi, had provoked, 
by his cruelty and misgovern ment, a general feeling 
of hatred and discontent, which broke forth in various 
insurrections. One of them was fomented by Doulat 
Khan, the governor of the Punjab, who, to protect 
himself from the vengeance of Ibrahim, solicited the 
assistance of Babar. It was promptly accorded, and 
Babar, with his cavalry, quickly crossed the Indus ; 
but some other Afghan chiefs, either from loyalty to 
Ibrahim or distrust of the stranger, drove out Doulat 
Khan, and encountered Babar in the field. They 
were beaten very thoroughly near Lahore, which 
Babar afterwards burned to ashes. At Dibalpur he 
was joined by Doulat Khan ; but having reason to 
suspect his good faith, he threw him and his sons 
into prison. His generous temper, however, speedily 
relented ; and releasing Doulat Khan and his sons, he 
treated them with distinction, and made them liberal 
gifts of lands. But they were sullenly wrathful at 
the humiliation put upon them, and while he was on 
the march for Delhi revolted and fled to the hills. 

Unwilling to leave in his rear such dangerous 
enemies, Babar resolved on returning to Kabul, but 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." I49 

kept his hold on the country he had reduced, and 
in the principal towns placed his most trusted lieu- 
tenants. At Dibalpur he left in command an uncle 
of the Delhi king, one Ala-ud-din, who had pledged 
him his allegiance. No sooner had Babar returned 
into Afghanistan, than Doulat Khan invaded the 
Punjab with a large army. One wonders what 
could have been the condition of the peasantry, the 
villagers, of this unhappy country, while it was thus 
incessantly traversed by fire and sword ! Eventually 
Doulat Khan was defeated and killed, while Ala- 
ud-din advanced rapidly against Delhi, but under its 
walls was attacked by Ibrahim with great spirit and 
put to the rout. 

Thereupon Babar prepared for another Indian cam- 
paign. He crossed the Indus with 10,000 cavalry 
on December 15th, 1525, and fought several battles 
on his way to the Sutlaj, where he struck into the 
direct road to Delhi. With waving banners and the 
clang of cymbals, he moved forward rapidly, as he 
loved to do, until at Panipat, about fifty miles from 
Delhi, he found his road blocked by the glittering 
hosts of Ibrahim. Stretching across the plain for 



150 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

miles, the Indian array consisted of 100,000 cavalry 
and infantry, drawn up behind. a phalanx of 1,000 
elephants. Babar's force did not exceed 13,000 men, 
including the usual camp followers ; but they were 
veteran warriors, clothed in complete armour and 
expert in the use of lance and sword and bow,, while 
the men opposed to them were Muhammadans, ener- 
vated by the Indian climate and the luxurious habits 
of Oriental indulgence, and Hindus, whose ancient 
military virtues had been crushed out of them by 
centuries of oppression. The battle was less unequal, 
therefore, than from the startling difference of 
numbers might be inferred. It was a Crecy or an 
Agincourt upon Indian soil. We must remember 
also that the native army necessarily included a 
considerable proportion of non-effectives, as is always 
the case with Oriental armies. 

Panipat is described by a traveller as a far-reaching, 
almost illimitable level tract, broken only by insig- 
nificant undulations. At certain points, where the 
shallow soil is moistened by some tiny watercourse, 
sparse grasses and stunted thorn-bushes grow. But 
for the most part it is one uniform yellowish-grey 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 151 

waste of sterile earth. Everywhere silence reigns ; 
and it would almost seem as if this desert had been 
designed for the battle-field of nations. 

It was on this dreary plain that Babar prepared to 
make his last throw for empire. His dispositions 
were marked by consummate skill. His flanks were 
strongly protected by fieldworks of earth and fascines ; 
his front was covered with cannon, linked together 
by ropes of twisted leather. Then came a line of 
breastworks ; and behind these were massed his 
troops in compact bodies, capable of swift and ready 
movement. 

. So strong was Babar's position that Ibrahim, on 
reconnoitring it, shrank from an attack, and pro- 
ceeded with great industry to fortify his own camp. 
For some days the two armies sat watching each 
other ; but at length Ibrahim's unwieldy host could 
no longer be restrained, and on April 2 1st he was 
compelled to lead it out to storm the invader's lines. 
As soon as he saw the enemy engaged with his 
centre, Babar moved forward his right and left wings, 
under a cloud of arrows, to attack and beat back the 
Indians on their flanks, and then close in upon their 



152 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

rear. This manoeuvre being crowned with success, 
Babar placed himself at the head of his main body 
of horsemen, waved aloft his banner, and dashed like 
a mountain torrent on the Indian centre, driving 
everything before him. Such was the fury of his 
onset that elephants, men, and horses were rolled up 
before it and thrown into irretrievable disorder, until 
the only thought of the panic-stricken Hindus was 
how they might escape those terrible scimitars of the 
Mughal troopers ! Surrounded as they were, how- 
ever, escape was scarcely less difficult than resistance. 
Babar records that, to the best of his judgment, some 
15,000 or 16,000 were slain upon the field, of whom 
between 5,000 and 6,000 were piled up immediately 
around their sultan, the last of the Afghan kings of 
Delhi. The loss in the battle and the pursuit is 
estimated by some authorities at 40,000. 

The third day after this crowning victory Babar 
entered Delhi, which he proceeded to garrison and 
fortify, after which he advanced upon Agra, The 
treasures which he secured in these two great and 
opulent cities seemed to his simple mind almost 
inexhaustible ; and he distributed them with charac- 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 1 53 

teristic open-handedness, thereby earning the sobri- 
quet of " The Kalandar," in allusion to a religious 
order whose members were pledged to keep nothing 
for the morrow. He presented his son Humayun 
with a magnificent diamond, weighing six hundred 
and seventy-two carats, which, under the name of the 
Koh-i-noor, or Mountain of Light, now glows in the 
imperial crown of Great Britain. He gave him also a 
palace and seventy lakhs of rupees, and to each of his 
amirs seven to ten lakhs, according to their rank and 
services ; and he sent a shahrukh (about 1 1^.) to every 
man, woman, and child, slave or free, in the kingdom 
of Kabul. 

BUILDING UP HIS EMPIRE. 

Babar, with justifiable complacency, speaks of his 
conquest of India as a great achievement, and com- 
pares it with the exploits of Sultan Mahmud and 
Shahab-ud-din. And though it is true that the area 
of his victories was much less extensive than that 
which his predecessors had made their own, still, when 
we remember the inadequate means at his disposal, 
we shall admit, I think, the justice of the comparison. 



154 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

But it taxed all his ability and all his wonderful 
energy to complete the work he had undertaken, and 
establish himself firmly on the throne of Delhi. 
Delhi was his, and Agra, and the country round 
about, and little more. All the country east of the 
Ganges had become independent in Ibrahim's time ; 
and many places west of the Jumna had also thrown 
off their allegiance. A greater difficulty was the ill- 
feeling existing between his troops and the natives, so 
that the latter deserted the villages near his camp, and 
refused to supply provisions or forage. The greatest 
difficulty of all was the reluctance of his chiefs to 
remain in the burning plains of India, and their home- 
thirst for the green valleys and shining streams of 
Kabul. This obstacle he overcame in characteristic 
fashion. Assembling his officers, he made them a 
speech full of fervent eloquence. The conquest of 
India, he said, had long been the goal of their labours ; 
and it would be incredibly weak and shameful to 
abandon it now that it was attained. What would all 
the Muhammadan kings in the world say of a sove- 
reign whom the fear of death compelled to abandon 
such a kingdom ? For himself, therefore, he was 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 1 55 

resolved to remain in India ; but all who desired to 
return home were at full liberty to do so. The firmness 
of their leader's language infused a new confidence into 
the breasts of his followers, most of whom resolved to 
cast in their lot with his. It had its effect even on 
the enemy ; and many who had expected Babar to 
retirCj as Timur had done, hastened to make their 
submission. Detachments, under experienced offi- 
cers, were sent out to reduce others ; and Babar's 
military operations were so skilfully devised and 
vigorously carried out that before the end of the 
year not only had the territory held by Sultan 
Ibrahim been subdued, but all the revolted provinces 
which at one time had acknowledged the supremacy 
of the King of Delhi. 

Having thus consolidated his authority over the 
Muhammadan princes, he was free to attempt the 
subjugation of those Hindu sovereigns who asserted 
their independence, the most considerable of whom 
was Sanga, Raja of Mewat, the acknowledged leader 
of the brave Rajput chiefs, and a man inured to war, 
who delighted in the thunder of the battle, to whose 

ear no music was so sweet as the clash of foemen's 
II 



156 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

swords. His vigorous and robust frame bore many 
marks of rough experiences : he had lost an eye and 
an arm, had had a leg broken by a cannon-ball, and 
in various parts of his body the scars told of eighty 
wounds. His military capacity as well as his prowess 
made him a formidable opponent ; and he enjoyed 
the prestige of invincibility, having defeated every 
enemy who had met him in the open field. Moreover, 
he had at his disposal a very powerful force ; 
80,000 horsemen following his standard, with seven 
rajas of higher and nine of lower rank, one hundred 
and four chieftains. His array included also five 
hundred war-elephants. When Babar first invaded 
India, the Raja made overtures for an alliance, but 
had afterwards dropped them ; and growing alarmed 
at or jealous of the Mughal emperor's increasing 
power and dominion, he resolved to drive him back 
across the Indus. Early in 1527 he put his immense 
host in motion, and advanced, 100,000 strong, to 
Biana, within fifty miles of Agra. The garrison 
there he compelled to retire into their citadel, and 
cut off all communication between them and the 
capital. Thereupon Babar marched to its relief, and 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 1 5/ 

had pushed forward as far as Sikri, about twenty 
miles, from Agra, when his vanguard was suddenly 
attacked by Sanga's army and repulsed with heavy 
loss. 

This disaster greatly depressed the Mughals, who 
perceived that their opponents were made of very 
different stuff from those they had conquered at 
Panipat, and were alarmed by their great numerical 
preponderance. Nor were their spirits improved by 
the arrival of a noted astrologer from Kabul, who 
loudly predicted, from the aspect of Mars, the defeat 
of the Mughals, who chanced to lie encamped " in the 
opposite quarter to that planet." Babar was of too 
robust an intellect to be affected by this jargon ; 
and to counteract its untoward influence upon his 
soldiery, he addressed them in strenuous earnest 
language, exhorting them, as warriors of the Crescent, 
to prefer death to defeat, and, as true believers, to 
welcome a crown of martyrdom rather than a life of 
shame. His spirited words rekindled the enthusiasm 
of the soldiers of Islam ; and when he produced a 
copy of the Koran, and invited every man, whatever 
his degree, to swear on that sacred volume to die 



158 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

rather than abandon the field, they rushed forward 
with exultant cries to take the oath. Babar himself 
prepared for the struggle on which his empire 
depended with unusual solemnity. He tells us that 
he repented of his sins ; he forswore wine, to indul- 
gence in which he was unfortunately prone; he 
distributed his gold and silver drinking vessels among 
the poor ; he made a vow to let his beard grow ; and 
he promised to remit the stamp tax on all Muham- 
madans if it pleased God to send him the victory. 

Availing himself of the renewed ardour of his 
soldiers, he drew them up in front of his entrench- 
ments on the morning of March i6th, and after 
planting his cannon in the best positions for harass- 
ing the enemy in their advance, he galloped along the 
front, and by pithy and stirring speeches animated 
his fighting-men and instructed their officers. The 
two armies joined battle. Owing to their prepon- 
derant numbers, the Hindus were able to outflank 
Babar's little force, and by sheer pressure to drive 
back both wings until they almost formed a circle. 
But the fine array of the Mughals remained un- 
broken, until Babar, perceiving that the enemy were 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 1 59 

fatigued with their prolonged efforts, suddenly 
assumed the offensive, and raising the shout of 
" Allah-il-Allah ! " fell, in a storm of spears and 
scimitars, on the Hindu legions. " Then that wonder 
of our age Mustafa Rumi," says Babar, "charged 
with terrible fury, making the heads of the Hindus 
fall from their bodies like stars from the sky, and 
Victory, whose countenance, bedecked with loose flow- 
ing tresses, had been concealed beneath a veil, as the 
bride of futurity, came to greet the present. The 
infidels were scattered like teased wool, and broken 
like bubbles of wine." 

This great victory made Babar master of Mewat, 
and by a rapid succession of well-directed move- 
ments he extended his rule over all Behar and 
Rajputana. He showed as much administrative 
capacity in settling and organising his conquests as 
he had shown military genius in making them ; and 
peace and tranquillity were established in all parts of 
an empire which stretched from the river Amu in 
Central Asia to the Gangetic delta in Lower Bengal. 

Let us note that the conqueror duly sent for the 
knavish astrologer who had predicted the defeat of 



l60 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

his arms, rated him soundly, then gave him a lakh of 
rupees, and bade him lie no more. 

ANECDOTES OF BABAR'S DOMESTIC LIFE AND 
CHARACTER. 

Babar was now at liberty to indulge in his fayourite 
pursuits : in planting and gardening ; in music and 
poetry, in both of which arts he excelled ; and in 
the composition of his autobiography, which supplies 
us not only with a veracious record of his life at 
home and abroad, but with a wonderfully transparent 
and unconscious portrayal of a character of a very 
admirable and attractive order. He grew old, how- 
ever, long before his time. He led a life of such 
incessant labour and adventure that his physical 
energies were completely undermined ; and it is said 
that, unhappily, he yielded to his love of wine — his 
only vice — to an extent which hastened his pre- 
mature decay. For some months he had been ailing, 
when his weakened constitution sustained a severe 
shock from the dangerous illness of his son 
Humayun, to whom he was tenderly attached. After 
drawing upon all the resources of their art, the 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." l6l 

physicians at length gave up the case as hopeless ; 
and the wise men when consulted were of opinion 
that the Sultan's sole chance of preserving the 
young life he valued so dearly lay in his making a 
propitiatory offering of something very precious to 
him. 

With characteristic generosity, Babar resolved on 
sacrificing his own life. In vain his friends entreated 
him to remember that it belonged to his subjects. 
He was old, he said, and broken ; his son, in the 
prime of manhood and the flush of his intellectual 
vigour, would make a better and more efficient 
sovereign. Others urged upon him that Heaven 
would be satisfied with his surrender of the most 
cherished of his worldly goods ; and suggested that 
he should give up to the gods his famous diamond, 
the Koh-i-noor. But Babar contended that the 
exchange must be life for life ; and walking thrice 
round the bed of the sick prince, he spent some 
moments in silent prayer, then, with a burst of 
sudden confidence, joyously exclaimed, " I have 
carried it away — the disease — I have carried it 
away ! " The unusual ceremony, the noble act of 



1 62 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

paternal devotion, the excitement and agitation, so 
wrought on the young prince's susceptibilities that he 
immediately rallied, and thenceforth began to recover 
rapidly ; while the health of Babar, as might be 
expected under such pathetic circumstances, just as 
rapidly declined. He survived but a few weeks, and 
passed away with the creed of Islam on his lips, 
" There is no God but God ! " on December 26th, 
1530, in the fiftieth year of his age and the thirty- 
eighth of his reign. During his last hours his thoughts 
went back to the blooming gardens and fresh bright 
streams of his beloved Kabul. He gave directions 
that his remains should be conveyed thither and 
interred on the summit of the picturesque hill outside 
the city, which to this day is known as the Babar 
Baghshah. A little brook waters the fragrant parterres 
of the cemetery ; and in front of the grave rises a 
small but graceful mosque of white marble, com- 
manding a magnificent prospect of mountain, plain, 
and valley. 

The empire which Babar founded has long since 
decayed, until it is now only a shadow and a name ; 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 163 

but he has left a permanent memorial of himself in 
his remarkable autobiography, the most charming 
in its frank simplicity and the most interesting in 
its minute details of any Oriental writings of the 
kind. Indeed, it is open to doubt whether even the 
autobiographical literature of the West can easily 
surpass it, for Babar was a man of original and 
powerful mind, with a keen faculty of observation, 
a quick insight into character, and a remarkable 
power of graphic description. With swift but. exact 
touches he sketches the places he visits, the persons 
he meets with ; he has an eye for beauty of land- 
scape, while he does not fail to notice in every 
country he traverses the principal points of interest : 
the climate, the natural products, the works of 
art, the industrial resources. His portraits are 
equally full and accurate ; he tells you the figure, the 
dress, the habits, the tastes of every individual he 
introduces. His narrative is often diversified by 
pleasant little epigrammatic touches and by the 
frankest possible personal allusions. He gossips 
about the first time he shaved, how he lost his 
first dinner through his awkwardness in carving a 



l64 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

roast goose, his sufferings from lumbago, his love 
of the game of leap-frog, his naughty fits of intem- 
perance. Nor is he less copious in talking of his 
friends, whose accidents and illnesses, adventures and 
peculiarities, he records at length and with un- 
disguised relish. He speaks with much affection of 
his mother and kinswomen, and cherishes a tender 
recollection of his childish companions. " It is a 
relief," says Erskine, " in the midst of the pompous 
coldness of Asiatic history, to find a king who can 
weep for days, and tell us that he wept for the play- 
mate of his boyhood." 

Writing to his son Humayun, he freely criticises 
the young man's composition. 

"In compliance with my wishes," he says, "you 
have indeed written two letters, but certainly you 
cannot have read them over. Had you attempted 
to do so, you would have found the task impossible, 
and would undoubtedly have laid them aside. I 
contrived, however, to decipher your last letter and 
make out the meaning, but with much difficulty. 
The style is excessively crabbed and confused. Who 
ever saw a Moamma or charade in prose? Your 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 165 

spelling is not bad, but yet not quite correct. Your 
letter may indeed be read, but, in consequence of the 
far-fetched words you have employed, its meaning 
is far from being intelligible. You certainly do not 
excel in letter-writing, chiefly because you have too 
great a desire to show off your acquirements. For 
the future write unaffectedly, with clearness, using 
plain language, which will give much less trouble 
both to writer and reader." 

After discussing, ir; a letter to his most confidential 
counsellor, Khaja Khan, certain affairs of state, he 
prattles away about their common acquaintances in the 
most diverting fashion, and then, pretending suddenly 
to recollect himself, exclaims, " For Heaven's sake, 
excuse all these fooleries, and do not think the worse 
of me for indulging in them." In another letter, 
proud of his resolution to abstain from wine, he 
urges a similar abstemiousness upon his minister, and 
laughingly gives as a reason that, though drinking 
might be pleasant enough with his old friends and 
gossips, now that he has only two bores like Shir 
Ahmed and Heider Kuli to take his wine with, it 
can be no great sacrifice to give it up ! In the same 



l66 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

letter his love of his native country finds naiVe 
expression : — " They recently brought me a musk 
melon. While cutting it up, I felt myself impressed 
with a sense of loneliness and of exile from my 
birth-land, nor could I refrain from shedding tears 
while I was eating it." 

It has been aptly pointed out, in illustration of the 
restless and unsettled nature of his life, that from 
the time he was eleven years old he never kept the 
fast of the Ramazan twice in one place. The time 
not spent in war and travelling was given to hunting 
and other sports, or in long excursions on horseback 
about the country. On his last journey, after his 
health had begun to fail, he rode in two days from 
Calpi to Agra, a distance of a hundred and sixty miles, 
though he had no particular motive for despatch ; and 
on the same journey he swam twice across the Ganges, 
as he said he had done every river he had met with. 
His mind was not less active than his body : besides 
State business, he was constantly occupied with 
aqueducts, reservoirs, and other improvements, as 
well as in introducing new fruits and other produc- 
tions from foreign countries. Yet he found time 



THE EMPEROR BABAR, OR "THE LION." 167 

to compose many elegant Persian poems and a 
collection of verses in Turki, which claim for him, it 
is said, a high rank among the poets of his own 
country. 

On the whole, I think one may say that Oriental 
history, though it presents figures more splendid and 
picturesque, presents none more attractive, none more 
interesting — because so sympathetic, genial, and 
humane — than the Emperor Babar. 



CHAPTER II. 

HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE GREAT MOGULS. 

'^T^HE reign of Humayun was darkened by heavy 
misfortunes, the chief of which originated in the 
partition of the empire that was forced upon him 
immediately after his accession, his brother Kamran, 
who was governor of Kabul and Kandahar, insisting 
on retaining those provinces and the Punjab as 
an independent kingdom. To propitiate his other 
brothers, he gave to Askari the government of Mewat, 
and to Hindal that of Sambal. Thus he was left 
to rule over newly conquered territories without the 
resources by which they had been acquired and might 
have been retained ; while his generosity did not 
secure the loyalty of those who profited by it, and 
bitter domestic feuds were added to his external 
difficulties. Unhappy indeed is the king who has 



HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE MOGULS. 1 69 

to contend not only with foreign enemies, but Vith 
foes in his own household ! 

It was not to be supposed that the Afghans, who 
for generations had battened on the wealth of India 
and occupied its throne, would submit without further 
struggle to be dispossessed by the enemies they hated 
most, the Mughals. During the brief reign of Babar 
they had trembled before his power, but he did not 
live long enough to establish his dynasty on an 
unassailable foundation ; and when Humayun suc- 
ceeded to a divided and enfeebled empire, he was 
immediately involved in hostilities which extended 
almost continuously over a period of ten years. 

THE HIDDEN TREASURE. 

One of his campaigns was made against the King 
of Guzarat, whom he drove out of his entrenched 
camp at Mandesor and hunted from place to place 
until the weary fugitive sought refuge in the island 
of Diu, off the coast of the Kathiwar peninsula. 
Humayun, in the course of this rapid pursuit, was 
exposed to much personal peril from the nocturnal 
attack of a tribe of mountaineers. They stole into 



I/O WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

his camp under cover of the darkness, eluding the 
vigilance of his guards, surprised the imperial tent, 
and actually carried off from it the Sultan's baggage 
and books, among which was a remarkable copy 
of the " History of Timur," the loss and subsequent 
recovery of which were considered circumstances 
worthy of special mention by contemporary historians. 
Humayun soon made himself master of Guzarat, but 
it was late in the summer before he captured its 
principal stronghold, the hill-fortress of Champanir, 
which crowned the summit of an isolated rock of 
great height. The story runs that the Emperor 
himself, with three hundred picked men, scaled it 
" at dead of night," by means of iron spikes driven 
into the face of the cliff, forced an entrance through 
its gateway, and then admitted the main body of his 
troops. After they had made their conquest secure, 
the Mughals discovered that the hiding-place of the 
royal treasures was known only to one of the Guzarat 
officers, and the Emperor was solicited to order him 
to be put to the torture until he disclosed the secret ; 
but Humayun, who had inherited much of his father's 
urbanity, suggested that recourse should instead be 



HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE MOGULS. I/I 

had to wine, and gave orders that the officer should 
be hospitably entertained by one of the imperial 
nobles. So it befell that when the Hindu's heart 
glowed with the warmth of wine his tongue was 
loosed, and he revealed to his host that if the water 
were drawn off from a certain tank, the sediment 
would be one of gold and silver. And thus, without 
suffering or bloodshed, the Sultan became possessed 
of the hidden treasure. 

AN AFGHAN CHIEF. 

The most formidable of Humayun's enemies was 
Shir Shah, the governor of Bengal. 

He was an Afghan chief and a remarkable man, 
gifted with all the strong and stalwart qualities which 
in times of convulsion carry men into the foremost 
rank. He was wary, yet bold ; full of resource, prompt 
in decision, and of great physical strength. It is 
told of him that while still a youth he slew a tiger 
with one blow of his scimitar. His ambition was 
boundless ; and from early years he had conceived 
the idea of seizing on the throne of India. As 
Alexander the Great remarked of himself and Darius 



1/2 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

that two suns could not shine in one hemisphere, so 
Shir Shah was wont to say that " two swords could 
never rest in one scabbard." With almost incredible 
patience and tenacity, he climbed step by step the 
ladder of power. On the death of Babar, he estab- 
lished himself in Behar, married a wealthy widow, 
and got hold of the strong fortress of Chunar, on 
the Ganges. Soon afterwards he conquered Bengal. 
In 1532 the Emperor demanded of him the surrender 
of Chunar, and when he curtly refused, marched 
against him. But as at the same time the King of 
Guzarat renewed hostilities and threatened the Rajput 
capital of Chittur, Humayun made a hasty peace 
with his Afghan adversary, and advanced against his 
old foe. The king then retired, but in the following 
year renewed his attack, and Humayun again moved 
to defeat it 

Now for ages the Rajputs had maintained an 
institution known as " The Festival of the Bracelet." 
It was held in the spring of the year ; and the Rajput 
ladies then selected their favourite cavaliers, for- 
warding to them a bracelet, with the title of " adopted 
brother." If the chosen warrior accepted the pledge, 



HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE MOGULS. 1 73 

and in return sent the plain silken vest worn by 
Rajput women of rank, he was thenceforward bound 
to devote himself to her service whenever she com- 
manded him. When the King of Guzarat advanced 
a second time against Chittur, Kumarath, the Rani, 
sent a bracelet to Humayun, and invited his assist- 
ance. With something of the spirit of the old 
chivalry of the West, Humayun accepted the obliga- 
tion. Before he could reach Chittur, however, it had 
been captured by the Guzarat soldiers, but not until 
10,000 Rajputs had perished, and Kumarath and all 
the women had voluntarily sacrificed themselves 
amidst the leaping flames of " the johur." 

A STRATAGEM. 

Meanwhile Shir Shah had been growing more 
formidable every day. His fame as a warrior had 
been increased by his capture of the hill-fortress of 
Rohtas, which is situated at an elevation of 1,400 
feet above the sea-level. Its natural advantages 
rendered it almost impregnable ; and Shir Shah 
resorted to stratagem to effect its reduction. To its 



174 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Rajput governor, who was as credulous as he was 
courageous, he sent a message saying that he was 
about to undertake a campaign in Bengal, and desired 
to leave in the charge of a warrior whom he esteemed 
so highly his women and treasures until he returned. 
After some little hesitation, the governor undertook 
the trust. Shir Shah then prepared a number of the 
litters usually employed in the conveyance of Muham- 
madan women of high rank, and in each — except the 
first three, which carried females — placed armed men, 
disguised in female attire. He also caused five 
hundred money-bags to be filled with leaden bullets ; 
these he entrusted to his bravest warriors, who were 
clad in the dress of Hindu peasants, and instructed to 
follow the litters on foot. The procession reached the 
fortress gate ; the first three litters were examined, 
and as these contained women, the others were suf- 
fered to pass unchallenged. Once within the walls, 
it was easy to play out the cunningly contrived 
drama ; Shir Shah's warriors sprang from their 
litters, and being joined by the pretended peasants, 
overpowered the garrison and admitted their leader 
into the fort. 



HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE MOGULS. 1/5 

SIEGE OF CHUNAR. 

Humayun, on his return from Guzarat, made imme- 
diate preparations for a campaign against this for- 
midable foe. Shir Shah was not at first prepared 
to meet him in the open field, and, to delay his 
advance, threw a strong garrison into Chunar, near 
Benares, which lay on the Emperor's line of march, 
and provided it with the means and appliances of 
a protracted defence. 

The fort of Chunar crosses the summit of a rock 
of sandstone which juts into the Ganges. It lies 
nearly north and south, is 800 yards in length, 133 
to 300 yards in breadth, and 80 to 175 feet above 
the surrounding plain. The walls extend over a 
circuit of nearly a mile and a half The fortifications 
now existing were mainly constructed by the Moslem, 
apparently from the materials of earlier Hindu build- 
ings. Sculptured stones, with figures of Hindu 
deities and heroes carved in high relief, are let into 
the walls and pavements, with their faces contemptu- 
ously turned downwards into the earth. 

Early in January, 1539, Humayun invested the 



176 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

fort. He endeavoured to mine such parts of the 
landward walls as were accessible, and constructed 
floating batteries with which to bombard those that 
looked upon the river. But though he plied his 
artillery with a good deal of vigour, the garrison 
defied his attacks for six laborious months, surren- 
dering only when their provisions were exhausted. 
The siege operations had been conducted by Rumi 
Khan, a Constantinopolitan Turk, w^ho was highly 
esteemed as a military engineer ; and so much im- 
portance was in those days attached to the knowledge 
of the service of artillery that Humayun ordered the 
right hands of all the gunners in the garrison, three 
hundred in number, to be cut off, either to disable 
them for the future, or in revenge for the loss they 
had occasioned. 

humayun's defeat. 

Hostilities were continued for some time longer, 
but some severe reverses befell the imperial armies, 
and Shir Shah's energy carried everything before it 
When the Emperor was falling back upon Agra, he 
suddenly threw himself across his line of retreat, and 



HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE MOGULS. 1 77 

surprised him by a sudden and vehement attack 
which completely routed his forces. Humayun had 
barely time to leap on horseback and, guided by one 
of his officers, gallop away to the bank of the Ganges. 
As there was no bridge at the point he struck, he 
plunged immediately into the deep water, but before 
he could reach the opposite bank his horse, ex- 
hausted, sank like a stone, and his imperial rider 
would have met with the same fate had not a water- 
carrier, who was crossing with the help of an inflated 
bladder, observed his danger and hastened to his 
rescue. The bladder proving sufficient for the support 
of both, Humayun landed in safety, and, with a few 
attendants who gathered round him, pursued his 
flight to Kalpi, and thence to Agra (1539). I may 
note that the man who had so opportunely assisted 
him made his appearance afterwards at the capital, 
and was rewarded by being seated for half a day, 
or, according to some authorities, for a couple of 
hours, on the imperial cushion, and allowed the full 
exercise of sovereign power, of which he made good 
use in providing freely for himself and his friends. 
Humayun arrived at Agra in time to prevent the 



178 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

outbreak of a conspiracy of which his brothers were 
the leading spirits. With his usual good-nature, he 
pardoned them both ; and the danger threatened by 
Shir Shah's rapid success temporarily united the 
three brothers by the bond of a common interest. 
For some months they held him at bay ; but in the 
spring of 1540 Humayun thought himself strong 
enough to take the field again, and marched out 
to encounter his formidable enemy, who was posted 
on the Ganges opposite Kanauj. For some time the 
two armies watched each other from opposite banks, 
but the desertion of an important chief and his 
followers compelled Humayun to take instant action. 
Throwing his army across the river, he offered battle. 
His challenge was accepted, and a desperate engage- 
ment took place, which resulted in his total defeat. 
A second time he narrowly escaped with his life. 
His horse was wounded, and he himself on the point 
of being killed or taken prisoner, when he came 
across an elephant, mounted it, and hastened down 
to the Ganges. The driver hesitated to make his 
animal swim the river ; and the Emperor, throwing 
him from his seat, ordered an eunuch to take his place. 



HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE MOGULS. 1 79 

The Other side, however, proved to be too steep for 
the elephant to climb, and Humayun would certainly 
have perished had not a soldier — who afterwards was 
raised to the ranks of the nobility — loosened his 
turban, and throwing the end down to him as he 
struggled in the water, dragged him, not without 
some difficulty, ashore (May i6th, 1540). 

Further resistance was impossible. The defeated 
Emperor fled towards Sind, accompanied by his 
young wife, who at Amarkot on October 14th, 1542, 
gave birth to a male child— the celebrated Akbar. 
Eventually he found shelter at Herat, and made a 
friendly alliance with the Shah of Persia. Afterwards 
we find him on " the war-path " in various directions 
— in Kandahar and Badakhshan and Transoxiana— 
quarrelling with his rebellious brothers and under- 
going the most extraordinary vicissitudes of fortune. 

HIS LAST YEARS. 

Meanwhile Shir Shah, after a reign of about five 
years, was succeeded on the throne of Delhi by his 
son Selim, who reigned nine years. Then came 
Selim's brother-in-law, Muhammad Khan, who waded 



l80 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

to the musnud through the blood of his nephew, a 
boy of twelve years old. This man was ignorant 
even to imbecility, and throughout his brief period 
of government was the sport of rebellion. The friends' 
of Humayun urged upon him, in these circumstances, 
to attempt the recovery of his throne. Accordingly 
in January, 1555, he set out from Kabul at the head 
of 15,000 cavalry ; invaded and overran the Punjab; 
and afterwards captured both Agra and Delhi. But 
the pomp and circumstance of Indian royalty he was 
fated not long to enjoy. Descending from the terrace 
of his library by an external flight of steps, which 
had no other protection than an ornamented parapet 
about a foot high, he paused on hearing the muezzin 
of the royal mosque make the call to prayers to 
repeat the creed, and sat down on a step until the 
crier ceased. In rising to his feet he leaned for 
support upon his staff, but it slipped on the polished 
marble, and he fell over the parapet on to the pave- 
ment below. He was taken up insensible; and though 
he was soon restored to consciousness, the injuries he 
had sustained proved mortal, and on the fourth day 
after the accident he passed away (January 25th, 



HUMAYUN, THE SECOND OF THE MOGULS. l8l 

1556), in the forty -ninth year of his age and the 
twenty -sixth of his troubled and unprosperous reign. 
Even to the last he seemed pursued by a malignant 
fortune, and in his death, as in his life, justified his 
sobriquet of Humayun " the Unlucky." 

He was interred on the bank of the Jumna, and 
over his last resting-place his son Akbar afterwards 
erected that stately mausoleum which is to this day 
the wonder and admiration of strangers. It is a 
noble building of granite, inlaid with marble, situated 
in a spacious garden of terraces and fountains, the 
whole being surrounded by an embattled wall, with 
towers and four gateways. In the centre stands a 
platform, about 200 feet square by 60 feet high, 
supported by cloisters, to which access is gained by 
four flights of granite steps. Above rises the mauso- 
leum, also square, with a great central dome of white 
marble. It is a remarkable fact that here, in Huma- 
yun's tomb, the last representative of the Mughal 
emperors — the last King of Delhi — sought refuge, with 
his sons and family, after the recapture of Delhi by the 
British troops in 1857 ; and it was here that he and 
they surrendered to Major Hodson, of Hodson's Horse. 



CHAPTER III. 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 



'nr^HE year 1556 was an annus mirahilis both in 
the Eastern and the Western worlds. It wit- 
nessed in the West the abdication of the Emperor 
Charles V., who surrendered to his son, Philip II., 
the thrones of Spain, Germany, and the Nether- 
lands ; in the East it witnessed the accession to 
the imperial throne of Delhi of the famous Akbar, 
then a boy of fourteen. As he ascended the mus- 
nud in 1556 and died in 1605, his reign almost 
exactly covered the same period as that of our 
Queen Elizabeth, who reigned from 1558 to 1603. 
And as Elizabeth's reign forms one of the most 
brilliant chapters in English history, so does Akbar's 
form one of the most splendid in the history of 
Islam. 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 1 83 

BATTLE OF PANIPAT (lSS6). 

At the time of his father's death he was gaining 
experience of war in the Punjab ; but though 
nominally the commander of the imperial army, he 
was really under the tutelage of a veteran warrior 
and statesman, Bairam Khan, who had been a faith- 
ful servant both to Akbar's father and grandfather. 
In compliance with the will of Humayun, Bairam 
Khan assumed the title of Khan Baba, " the King's 
father," or regent, during Akbar's minority, and 
exercised sovereign power. Accompanied by the 
boy-Sultan, he marched against his sovereign's most 
formidable adversary, Hemu, the Hindu minister and 
general of Muhammad Adali, who, at the head of 
ico,ooo horse and foot, with 3,000 elephants, was 
advancing upon Delhi. The two contending hosts 
met on the historic field of Panipat. The night 
before the battle Hemu sent an arrogant message 
to Akbar, warning him that one so young and feeble 
must not suppose himself capable of successfully 
encountering a monarch of vastly superior power. 
"Come not," he said, ''within the reach of my 



1 84 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

numerous and irresistible fighting-men and elephants, 
lest in the collision harm should befall thee. I resign 
to thee all the territories eastward of the Jumna to 
the uttermost limits of Bengal ; be mine the re- 
mainder of Hindustan." Akbar, or his regent, replied 
that all Hemu's previous victories had been at the 
expense of inconsiderable antagonists. " Where is 
the glory," he continued, " of fastening a chain upon 
a slave ? Without experience of battle, without 
having known aught of the terrors of an encounter 
with the warriors of my race, what canst thou imagine 
of the honour of an equal contest ? The shadows of 
night disappear at the approach of day, when the 
lord of light unsheathes his sword of splendour. 
When to-morrow dawns, come to the field in thy 
strongest array, and we shall then see whom God 
is disposed to favour." 

Never was action more desperately fought. Hemu 
opened it with a charge of elephants ; but the Mughal 
ranks stood solid as a rock, and the ponderous animals, 
as was ever their way when the first assault failed, 
irritated by the storm of missiles which burst upon 
them, wheeled round and crashed into the native 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 185 

ranks, spreading everywhere the greatest confusion 
and dismay. Then the Mughals made haste to 
grapple with their foemen ; ■ and in a hand-to-hand 
combat the feebler Hindus had but a sorry chance. 
They broke, they fled, and in their flight were 
remorselessly slaughtered. Hemu, mounted on a 
colossal elephant, endeavoured to prolong the battle ; 
but an arrow pierced his eye, and he fell back 
senseless into his howdah. On regaining conscious- 
ness, he plucked out the arrow, dragging with it the 
bleeding eyeball. The physical agony he endured 
could not daunt the brave spirit that dwelt in this 
man's insignificant and frail body ; and he made 
another furious effort to shake and shatter the hostile 
ranks. He failed, was taken prisoner, and conveyed 
to Akbar's pavilion, where Bairam would have had 
his young sovereign gain the noble title of Ghazi^ 
or champion of the faith, by killing with his own 
hand this valiant " infidel." But Akbar refused to 
strike a wounded enemy, and gently touching him 
with his sword, broke into tears of compassion. 
Angrily exclaiming that it was by their inopportune 
clemency his family had incurred their many mis- 



1 86 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

fortunes, Bairam, with one sweep of his scimitar, 
severed the head of the unfortunate Hemu from his 
body. 

AKBAR REIGNS. 

Order and tranquillity were speedily established 
throughout the empire. No doubt this result was 
largely owing to the capacity and energy of Bairam 
Khan ; but unfortunately his success intoxicated 
him with pride and arrogance. He began to presume 
on the value of his services, and exercised an arbitrary 
dictatorship which Akbar, as he grew towards man- 
hood, felt to be extremely irksome. His anger was 
roused by the injustice and even cruelty of some of 
his minister's proceedings. Without troubling himself 
to ask his sovereign's assent, he banished or put to 
death all whom he regarded as his private enemies. 
Akbar's old preceptor was among those whom he 
sent into exile, the former governor of Delhi among 
those whom he executed. At length, having reached 
the age of eighteen, Akbar resolved to throw off 
a yoke which had become intolerable. When out 
on a hunting-party, he pleaded the sudden illness 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 1 8/ 

of his mother as an excuse for galloping away to 
Delhi ; and having reached the capital, he imme- 
diately issued a proclamation announcing that he 
had personally assumed the government, and for- 
bidding obedience to any orders but his own. This 
coup d'etat startled Bairam out of his dream of 
perpetual authority, and he despatched two of his 
friends to make his humble submission ; but Akbar 
refused to see them, and committed them to prison 
(March, 1560). 

For some weeks the disgraced minister lingered 
at Nagor, in the hope, perhaps, that Akbar would 
find the burden of imperial power too heavy and 
recall to his assistance his old and experienced 
minister. But a message dismissing him from his 
office, and ordering him to proceed on a mission to 
Mecca, excited his worst passions. He made haste 
to assemble a body of troops, raised the standard of 
revolt, and invaded the Punjab. He soon discovered 
that a disgraced minister has few friends, and being 
hotly pursued by the imperial troops, he was com- 
pelled to escape to the Si walk hills and implore the 
Emperor's mercy. Akbar behaved with a magna- 



13 



1 88 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

nimity worthy of the grandson of Babar. When 
Bairam came, with his turban round his neck and 
bathed in tears, to throw himself at his master's feet, 
Akbar, forgetting all but his eminent services, raised 
him from the ground, seated him on his right hand, 
and invested him with a dress of honour. He then 
offered him three alternatives : an important pro- 
vincial government, a distinguished post at court, 
or a royal retinue and suitable income to make his 
pilgrimage to Mecca. Prudence and piety counselled 
him to accept the last ; accordingly he was allowed 
an annual pension of ^5,000, and he then set out for 
Guzarat On the way he turned aside to offer his 
devotions at Sahassak, or " The Thousand Temples," 
where he fell beneath the dagger of an Afghan, whose 
father he had killed in battle in the reign of 
Humayun. 

Relieved from a control which had grown oppres- 
sive, and from a system of administration of which 
his sagacity disapproved, Akbar felt at liberty to 
shape out a great design, and to its accomplishment 
directed all his energies during his long and 
memorable reign. His political insight taught him 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 1 89 

that the Mughal dynasty rested upon no solid or 
stable foundation, but only on the spears of the 
fine soldiery who were attracted to its banners by 
the promise of high pay, the hope of plunder, and 
the love of adventure. The houses of Ghazni and 
Ghor had possessed resources in their native 
kingdoms, which lay contiguous to their Indian con- 
quest, and the slave kings were supported by the 
continual immigration of their countrymen ; but 
though Babar had been to some extent naturalised 
in Kabul, yet, as Elphinstone remarks, the separation 
of that country from the empire under Kamran had 
broken its connection with India, and the rivalry of 
an Afghan dynasty converted the most warlike of its 
inhabitants, as well as the Indian Muhammadans, 
into enemies. In these circumstances Akbar con- 
ceived the idea of "placing himself at the head of 
the whole Indian nation," and of amalgamating its 
various races and sects into one vast community, 
governed by the same laws, though preserving 
their distinctions of customs, religion, caste, and 
even to some extent their separate political institu- 
tions. 



190 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

AKBAR HIMSELF. 

The man who formed this fine ideal of empire was 
well fitted by nature to accomplish its realisation. 
His physical advantages were considerable. He was 
tall of stature, with a regal presence ; of a strongly 
knit frame, capable of enduring the extremes of 
hardship and fatigue ; with a handsome and open 
countenance, such as men love to look upon in their 
rulers. His son Selim describes him as of a ruddy 
nut-brown complexion. Some Portuguese Jesuits, 
who visited his court when he was about fifty, say 
he was "white like an European," with dark eyes 
and eyebrows, the latter running into each other. 
He had " the strength of a lion," which was apparent 
in the extraordinary breadth of his chest and length 
of his arms. On the whole, say these foreigners, 
his appearance was impressive and dignified. A 
black mole on his nose was declared " by those skilled 
in the science of physiognomy to prognosticate an 
extraordinary career of good fortune ; and, indeed, 
he could not be regarded as other than fortunate 
who sounded the great drum of sovereign power for 



AKBAR THE GREAT. I9I 

a period of fifty years over the whole of Hindustan, 
and that without a rival or an opponent." 

His sobriety and abstemiousness maintained him 
in admirable health and activity. On certain days, 
amounting altogether to nearly a fourth part of the 
year, he refrained entirely from animal food. Very 
little sleep sufficed him. His adventurous temper 
he gratified by frequent indulgence in hunting ; and 
he especially delighted in the destruction of tigers 
and the capture of herds of wild elephants. In his 
pastimes, as in his more serious pursuits, there was 
nothing mean or trivial ; he was in all things a man 
of large thoughts and high aspirations. He was 
absolutely fearless of danger ; and his passion for 
action was remarkable in one who could reflect with 
so much calmness and profundity. He would ride from 
Agra to Ajmere, a distance of two hundred and twenty 
miles, in a couple of days, for pure enjoyment of 
the swift continuous exercise. He would spring from 
the back of a tame elephant on to that of the most 
furious and unmanageable, which had killed, perhaps, 
several keepers ; or he would drop upon its neck 
from the branch of a tree or the top of a wall. On 



192 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

more than one occasion he slew with his own hand 
the royal tiger, the fierce lord of the jungle ; and 
once, coming upon a tigress with five cubs, he spurred 
his horse against her, and laid her dead with one 
blow across the loins. 

In battle his brilliant courage was the inspira- 
tion of his soldiers. Clothed in glittering armour, 
mounted on his favourite steed, Koparah, and 
brandishing his well-known scimitar, " The Conquest 
of Empires," he was always foremost in the charge ; 
and his turbaned crest, rising high above the heads 
of his nobles, was as conspicuous a rallying-point 
to the chivalry of Islam as " the snow-white plume " 
of Henry of Navarre to the Huguenot soldiery on 
the fields of Ivry and Moncontour. The generosity 
which was as marked a feature of his character as 
it had been of that of his grandfather Babar per- 
meated, as it were, and inspired his courage. Once, 
when weary of the delay caused by the slow siege 
of the fortress of a rebellious raja, he challenged 
him to single combat, saying, " Though in my 
army I have a thousand men as good as yourself, 
yet, rather than fatigue my soldiers with a long 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 1 93 

blockade, I will stake the whole on the issue of a 
single combat between you and me ; and let him 
own the fort who shall best deserve it." Again, in 
the storming of a strong castle he was himself leading 
the assault, when a young Rajput chief, indignant 
at some supposed rebuff from the Emperor, stripped 
off his armour, and declared he would go into the 
fight without any. Akbar immediately doffed his 
own coat of mail, saying he would not allow any 
of his chiefs to be more exposed in battle than he 
himself was. 

But you must not conceive of him only as a valiant 
soldier : he was more — as a military commander he 
displayed consummate skill, and in the management 
of an army in the field he exhibited a tactical dex- 
terity which none of his predecessors had approached. 
He was not wholly devoid of ambition ; and probably 
it would have been impossible for any one in his 
position to have refrained from schemes of conquest, 
nor could he have fulfilled his great idea of the unifi- 
cation of India without engaging in them. But he 
had no passion for military glory. His ruling desire 
was to be known as a legislator and reformer His 



T94 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

intellect was strong, vigorous, and clear ; his imagina- 
tion was vivid, but always under the control of his 
judgment ; and though tenacious of purpose and firm 
of will, he did not shut his ears to the voice of reason. 
According to his lights and opportunities, he was a 
deeply religious man, with a profound sense of the 
Divine government of the world ; and he delighted 
in discussing the great and solemn questions con- 
nected with the soul's destiny. His scholarship was 
considerable, and he was fond of the society of 
learned men, who found in him a liberal and sym- 
pathetic patron. In character and disposition he was 
nearly all that a sovereign ought to be : tolerant, 
humane, strictly just, generous to a fault, assiduous 
in the discharge of his duties, easy of access, and 
ever ready to encourage and reward the deserving. 
When I have added that he was fascinating in his 
manners and genially affable towards all comers, 
while there was a dignity about him which effectually 
prevented undue familiarity, I have said enough to 
prove that Akbar the Mughal is fairly entitled to a 
place among the world's greatest men, along with 
an Alfred the Great and a Charlemagne. 



AKBAR THE GREAT. IQS 

I shall not weary the reader with detailed narra- 
tives of all Akbar's campaigns and achievements. 
They belong to a dead past, and have no longer any 
actual interest or profit for mankind. Let me note 
in one brief sentence that he subdued and annexed 
the Rajput kingdoms in 1566-68, Guzarat in 1572 
and 1573, Bengal in 1576, Kashmir in 1586, Sind 
in 1592, Kandahar in 1594, and Khandesh in 1601, 
and then pass on to glance at some incidents which 
illustrate the man and his time. 

INCIDENTS. 

During one of his campaigns — in the Punjab, I 
think — as Akbar was going in procession to a famous 
mosque, an archer in the service, as it was afterwards 
ascertained of a rebel chief, mixed with the spec- 
tators, and pretending to discharge his arrow at a 
bird which hovered in the blue above, suddenly 
lowered it so as to lodge it some inches deep in the 
Emperor's shoulder. He was immediately arrested 
and Akbar was solicited to defer his execution until 
he had been compelled by torture to reveal the name 
of his employer ; but the Emperor finely replied that 



196 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

a confession so obtained was more likely to criminate 
the innocent than disclose the guilty. 

On another occasion one of his maternal kinsmen, 
Khaja Moazzim, a man of very violent temper, having 
treated his wife with great cruelty, her relatives 
implored the Emperor to use his influence and pre- 
vail upon him to leave the unfortunate lady with her 
mother w^hen he retired to his country estate. Akbar, 
when out on a hunting expedition, seized the oppor- 
tunity to pay a visit to Khaja's house near Delhi ; 
but Khaja, conjecturing his object, hurried to the 
woman's apartment, stabbed his wife to the heart, 
and threw the bloody body from the window among 
the imperial attendants. Akbar, on entering the 
house, found the wretch armed for resistance, and 
narrowly escaped death at the hand of one of his 
slaves, who was cut down while aiming a blow at 
the Emperor. He thereupon gave orders that Moaz- 
zim should be thrown headlong into the Jumna ; but, 
as he did not sink immediately, Akbar relented, and 
causing him to be dragged out of the river, sentenced 
him to be imprisoned for life at Gwalior, where, 
however, he soon afterwards died, a maniac. 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 197 



AN HEROIC EPISODE. 



One of the most heroic episodes of the siege of 
Chittur, undertaken by Akbar in 1569, has for its 
central figure a young chief : Pulta, Raja of Kailwa. 
His father had been killed by a Mughal arrow ; and 
when no hope remained of successfully defending the 
fortress, his mother bade him put on the saffron- 
coloured robe of mourning and join his father in 
Paradise. And that he might not leave behind him 
any one he loved, she armed his young bride, and 
seizing a sword for her own use, descended the rock, 
at the base of which the two brave women fell in 
the sight of both armies, fighting desperately to 
the last. 

THE HAPPY VALLEY. 

In extending his dominions, Akbar was led to 
undertake the conquest of Kashmir, that beautiful 
country which the poets have designated " The 
Happy Valley," which in some parts seems to 
realise the dream of an earthly Paradise. Situated 
in the heart of the Himalayas, and more than half- 



198 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

way up their height, it is sheltered by ramparts of 
lofty peaks and pinnacles from the biting blasts of 
the higher regions, and yet escapes the tropical heat- 
waves of Hindustan. Thus it enjoys a climate of 
delightful temperance and equability, and displays 
a luxurious scene of " continual verdure and almost 
of perpetual spring," though the vast summits around 
are white and worn with everlasting snows. Trees 
belonging to different zones here flourish side by side, 
while various kinds of delicious fruits and flowers of 
brilliant hue and exquisite fragrance are poured pro- 
fusely forth over hill and plain. The level lands are 
brightened by shining streams, which slide out of the 
deep glens or tumble in cascades down the mountain 
slopes, to collect in brimming pools, more particularly 
in the two beautiful lakes of the Dal and the ManuS' 
bul, which, with their picturesque shores and floating 
gardens, greatly enhance the natural charms of the 
Happy Valley. 

It seems fitting that to an Eden like this the 
access should be only through difficult mountain 
passes, ranging from 9,000 to 12,000 feet in elevation. 
" The road, though a steep ascent on the whole, 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 1 99 

often rises and descends over rocky ridges, some- 
times winds through long and close defiles, and 
sometimes runs along the face of precipices over- 
hanging deep and rapid rivers. The higher part 
of the mountain, whence the descent into Kashmir 
commences, is at one season further obstructed, and 
in some places rendered impassable, by snow." 

In 1586 the imperial army penetrated into the 
valley, through a pass which had been left unguarded ; 
but its commanders, alarmed by the failure of their 
supplies and by a heavy snowfall, which indicated 
the approach of winter, hastily concluded a treaty, 
the effect of which was to preserve the actual inde- 
pendence of Kashmir, though the Mughal supremacy 
was nominally recognised. With this compromise 
Akbar was greatly dissatisfied, and in the following 
year he despatched a second army, which fought its 
way to the capital, and compelled complete sub- 
mission. The King, surrendering himself prisoner, 
was enrolled among the great nobles of Delhi, and 
sent to live on an estate assigned to him in Behar. 
Thus Kashmir sank quietly into a subject province, 
after having held the rank of an independent kingdom 



200 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

for nearly a thousand years. Soon afterwards Akbar 
made a pilgrimage, or royal progress, to the Happy 
Valley, to survey the natural beauties of which he 
had heard so much. Twice only during the rest 
of his reign was he able to repeat the visit ; but the 
Happy Valley became the favourite retreat of his 
successors, and numerous proofs and memorials of 
their partiality are to this day in existence. 

A REMARKABLE WOMAN. 

In 1595 Akbar desired to extend his authority to 
the Deccan, or Central India, which was then con- 
vulsed with the dissensions between its princes. 
At Ahmednagar the succession to the musnud was 
disputed ; and the would-be king in possession of 
the capital solicited the assistance of Akbar against 
his rival. This exactly suited the Emperor, who 
at once sent into the Deccan a powerful army, under 
his son, Prince Morad. But in the meantime the 
government of Ahmednagar had fallen into the hands 
of Chand Sultana, or Chand Bibi, one of those 
remarkable women who make such brilliant figures 
on the canvas of Indian history ; and she had made 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 20I 

Strenuous efforts to induce the princes of the Deccan 
to sink their private quarrels and unite in common 
resistance to a common enemy. To a considerable 
extent her efforts were successful, and the gathering 
of the native forces compelled Prince Morad to push 
forward in all haste the siege of Ahmednagar. Two 
mines which he had sunk and carried under the 
fortifications were discovered by the besieged and 
rendered useless by counter-mines, Chand Bibi super- 
intending the workman in person, heedless of the 
missiles that flew around her. A third mine was 
exploded, however, before the counter-mining was 
completed, blowing up a number of the besieged 
and tearing a great gap in the wall. A sudden panic 
shook the hearts of the defenders, and they were 
on the point of deserting the ramparts, when Chand 
Bibi, clothed in full armour and sword in hand, but 
with her face veiled, according to the custom of the 
native women, hastened to the spot, rallied her 
soldiers, and infused into them so much of her own 
spirit that they soon repulsed the attack of the 
Mughals, overwhelming them with ceaseless volleys 
of arrows, matchlock balls, and rockets. Morad next 



202 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

day ordered a renewal of the assault ; but it was 
found that in the night the defenders, encouraged 
by the heroic Sultana, had built up the breach to 
such a height that it could not be mounted without 
new ladders. Both parties then thought it advisable 
to cease the desperate contention, and the Mughals 
agreed to withdraw on the cession of Berar to the 
Emperor being confirmed. 

In the following year fresh troubles broke out in 
Ahmednagar, and Akbar's assistance was again 
solicited by one of the contending parties. A great 
battle was fought early in January, i 597, on the river 
Godaveri ; but though maintained with unfailing fury 
for two days, it was indecisive. It is true that the 
Mughals claimed the victory, but they were in no 
condition to profit by it, and Akbar, dissatisfied with 
Morad's management of the campaign, sent Abul 
Fazl, his prime minister (and also his historian), to 
supersede the prince and take command of the army. 
Before long it became evident that only the presence 
of the great Emperor himself could bring back fortune 
to the arms of the Mughals ; and in the late spring 
of 1599 he made his appearance on the banks of 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 203 

the Nerbadda, and despatched his vanguard, under 
his son Prince Daniyal, to reinvest Ahmednagar. 
Chand Bibi was at the time involved in so many 
complications that she felt unable to undertake its 
defence, and had entered into negotiations for peace 
with the Mughals, when the Hindu soldiery, at the 
instigation of some of her personal enemies, broke 
into the female apartments of the palace, and foully 
murdered this heroic woman. Such was the sad end 
of Chand Bibi. 

akbar's last years and death. 

The misconduct of his sons darkened the closing 
years of the great Emperor. Selim, afterwards the 
Emperor Jahanger, possessed excellent abilities ; but 
in all other respects contrasted unfavourably with 
his father and grandfather. Naturally of an austere 
temper, it had been inflamed, and at the same time 
his intellect enfeebled, by the immoderate use of wine. 
He himself tells us in his autobiography — all the 
Mughal emperors, by the way, inherited Babar's 
autobiographic tastes — that in his youth he took at 
least twenty cups of wine daily, each cup containing 

14 



204 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

half a soi, that is, six ounces, — or nearly half a pint 
(the amount seems incredible) — and that if he went 
a single hour without his beverage, his hands began 
to shake, and he was unable to sit at rest. Opium- 
drinking was another of his vices. The severe and 
didactic minister-historian, Abul Fazl, he had always 
regarded as his natural enemy ; and it was partly as 
a concession to this feeling of his son's that Akbar 
sent his minister to the Deccan. In 1602 the prince 
contrived his murder, employing as his agent Narsing 
Deo, Raja of Orcha, who inveigled him into an 
ambuscade, overpowered him and his court, and sent 
his head to the prince. The loss of his principal 
adviser — his son's share in which he seems never to 
have known or suspected — was a great blow to 
Akbar. He wept bitterly, and passed two days and 
nights without food or sleep ; and he despatched 
an army against Narsing Deo, with orders to seize 
his family, lay waste his territory, and inflict other 
severities from which, in his ordinary frame of mind, 
Akbar would certainly have shrunk. 

His third son. Prince Daniyal, brought much 
sorrow and shame on Akbar's gr^ hairs. He too 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 205 

was addicted to intemperance ; and his terrible ex- 
cesses finally killed him in 1604, when he was only 
in his thirtieth year. His health for some time pre- 
vious had been lamentably feeble ; and the Emperor, 
besides exacting from him his word of honour that 
he would drink no more wine, surrounded him with 
trusty officers to prevent him from gratifying his 
unhappy craving. But, with the cunning of the 
dipsomaniac, the prince contrived to outwit them. 
He had his liquor conveyed to him secretly in the 
barrel of a fowling-piece, and speedily drank himself 
to death. 

The Emperor, an old man, whose strength had 
been taxed for nearly half a century by the burden 
of empire, was unable to bear the additional pressure 
of domestic troubles. He had been' for some time 
ailing, when, in September, 1605, his complaint sud- 
denly assumed a most unfavourable aspect Feeling 
that his end was approaching, he hastened to set in 
order the vast affairs of his extended empire, so that 
his successor might have no difficulty in taking up 
the various threads. His laborious task completed, 
he sent for his son Selim, and bade him summon to 



206 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

his presence all his omrahs, "for I cannot endure," 
he said, " that any misunderstanding should exist 
between you and those who for so many years have 
shared in my toil and been the associates of my 
glory." 

As soon as they were assembled, he cast upon 
them a wistful glance, and desired them to bury in 
oblivion and to forgive any offences of which they 
could justly accuse him. Then, drawing Selim 
towards him, and embracing him affectionately, he 
said : " My dear son, take this my last farewell, for 
on earth we never meet again. Beware th-at thou 
withdrawest not thy protection from the ladies of 
my harem ; continue to them the allowance that I 
have always made ; and although my departure must 
cast a heavy gloom upon thy mind, let not the words 
that are past be at once forgotten. Many a vow and 
many a covenant have been exchanged between 
us ; break not the pledge which thou hast given me ; 
forget it not. Beware ! Many are the claims which 
weigh upon my soul. Be they great or be they 
small, do not thou neglect them. Call to thy remem- 
brance my deeds of martial glory ; forget not the 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 20/ 

exercise of that bounty which distributed so many 
jewels ; remember, when 1 am gone, my servants and 
dependants, and the afflicted in the hour of need ; 
ponder word by word all that I have said. Do thou 
bear it all in mind ; and, again, forget me not ! " 

Selim threw himself at his father's feet, and wept 
many tears. Then Akbar pointed to his favourite 
scimitar, and made signs to him to bind it on in 
his presence. Afterwards (according to a somewhat 
doubtful authority) he permitted one of the chief 
mullahs, a friend of Prince Selim, to be introduced, 
and repeated to him the Muhammadan confession of 
faith, and otherwise assented to the rites and forms 
of Islam. And on the night of Wednesday, 
October loth, 1605, Akbar Shah, "The Ornament 
of the World," " The Asylum of the Nations," " The 
King of Kings," " The Lord of Lords," " The Great," 
" The Fortunate," and " The Victorious " — for all these 
titles did he bear — passed away from the scene of his 
greatness and his glory, in the sixty-fourth year of 
his age and the fiftieth of his reign. 

The funeral of Akbar was worthy of the grandeur 
of the man and the magnificence of his empira 



208 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Selim and his three sons bore the coffin out of the 
palace gates. There it was taken up by the young 
princes and the great officers of the imperial house- 
hold, relieving each other at fixed intervals, and 
conveyed to Sikandra, on the banks of the Jumna, 
five miles north-west of Agra, where to this day 
it reposes, under a stately tomb, erected at a cost of 
eighteen hundred thousand pounds. This is the 
splendid mausoleum of which Fergusson supplies so 
happy a description. 

It is pyramidal, he says, in external form. The 
outer or lower terrace is 320 feet square by 30 feet 
high, and of a bold and massive architecture. From 
this terrace rises another, far more ornate in style, 
measuring 186 feet on each side, and 14 feet 9 inches 
in height. A third terrace is 1 5 feet 2 inches, and a 
fourth 14 feet 6 inches in elevation, each being of 
red sandstone, and upon this fourfold substructure 
rests an enclosure of white marble, 1 57 feet each way, 
or externally just half the dimensions of the lowest 
terrace. The outer wall of this is entirely composed 
of marble trellis-work of the most beautiful patterns. 
Inside it is surrounded by a colonnade of the same 



AKBAR THE GREAT. ^ 209 

material. In the centre of this cloister, on a raised 
platform, stands the founder's tomb, a splendid com- 
position of the most beautiful arabesque tracery. 
This, however, is not the real sepulchre, for the 
mortal remains of the great Emperor repose within 
a far plainer resting-place, in a vaulted chamber 
in the basement, 35 feet square, exactly beneath the 
factitious tomb that crowns the summit of the 
mausoleum. 

This is the most' characteristic of all Akbar*s 
buildings, while it differs completely from every other 
tomb in India either of earlier or later date. Pro- 
bably the idea was derived from some Buddhist 
model. It was begun by Akbar, and completed by 
his son Jahanger in 161 3. 

akbar's tolerance. 

Akbar was nobly distinguished by his enlightened 
tolerance in all matters of religious belief and prac- 
tice — a tolerance which procured him the enviable 
title of " Guardian of Mankind." He was the first 
Indian sovereign who treated both Muhammadan 
and Hindu on a footing of equality, and made no 



2IO WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

distinction between them in the distribution of 
rewards and honours. In the seventh year of his 
reign, he abolished the jizya, a head tax levied upon 
" infidels," as all non-Muhammadans were called: 
About the same time he swept away the taxes upon 
pilgrims, remarking that " though they were imposed 
upon a vain superstition, yet, as every form and 
mode of worship inclined the hearts of men towards 
the Supreme Being, it was wrong to throw any 
obstacle in the way of the devout and cut them off 
from their channel of intercourse with their Maker." 
But while he allowed the Hindu entire freedom of 
belief and worship, he sternly repressed those native 
practices which were contrary to the moral law. 
Thus he prohibited trials by ordeal, marriages 
before a proper age, and the sati^ or burning of 
widows against their will ; and hearing, on one occa- 
sion, that the Raja of Jodpur intended to compel 
his son's widow to immolate herself on the burning 
pile, he mounted his horse, and rode post to the 
spot to prevent the perpetration of so foul an 
atrocity. 

His liberality towards Hinduism did not fail to 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 211 

excite the indignation of the more bigoted Muham- 
madans, and particularly of the mullahs, who had 
a vested interest in the suppression of every creed 
but their own. Their mouthpiece, the author of the 
" Muntakhab ut Tawarikh," accuses the Emperor of 
intentionally and regularly degrading the religion of 
Islam, and even of persecuting its more zealous 
adherents. But if he had not favoured those who 
obeyed him, and shown some degree of dislike for 
active opponents, he would have been more than 
human ; but in every case adduced by the writer it 
is clear that Akbar was irritated by particular acts 
of disrespect or disobedience, which he could hardly 
have been expected to overlook. Thus, if he ordered 
one of his principal Muhammadan courtiers out of 
his presence, it was because the man had rudely 
criticised his proceedings, and insolently asked 
what he thought would be the opinion of orthodox 
Muhammadan princes in other countries. If he told 
another that the only fit reply to his language would 
be a blow, it was because the offender had applied 
the word " hellish " to Akbar's heterodox advisers. 
The most conspicuous of his fanatical censors was 



212 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

the Khan-i-Azim, his foster-brother and one of his 
most trusted Heutenants. As he had long been 
absent in the government of Guzarat, his mother 
prevailed on the Emperor to invite him to Court. 
Azim excused himself; and it came out that his 
real objection was to shaving his head and performing 
the prostration. The Emperor wrote to him in terms 
of good-humoured remonstrance, and when this 
proved of no avail, sent him an imperative summons. 
Azim then resigned his government, and addressed 
an insolent letter to the Emperor, in which he 
inquired if he had received a new revelation from 
Heaven or could work miracles like Muhammad, 
seeing that he imposed upon men a new religion ; 
warned him that he was on his way to eternal 
perdition ; and concluded with a prayer that God 
would bring him back into the path of salvation. 
After this intemperate outburst, he thought it ad- 
visable to embark at once for Mecca. But he soon 
grew weary of his self-imposed banishment, and 
returned to India, where he made his submission, 
and was received by the generous Akbar into his 
former favour and confidence. 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 21 3 

Tlie large and liberal tolerance cultivated by Akbar 
was not based upon an indifference to Islam or a 
preference for Hinduism, inasmuch as he extended 
it to Christians, Jews, and members of all other 
religions. He permitted the Jesuits to build Chris- 
tian churches in Agra and Lahore, and to establish 
colleges, which he assisted in endowing. Early in 
his reign he displayed this wise and generous spirit, 
and listened without prejudice to different religious 
teachers ; but he had occupied the musnud for nearly 
a quarter of a century before he made open profes- 
sion of his latitudinarianism. No doubt it was the 
free discussion at his Court of religious topics that 
led him to reject the pretensions of Islam ; while 
many of those around him were gifted with an 
exceptional breadth of sympathy, which cannot have 
been without influence on his mind. One day he 
asked a celebrated Persian teacher, respected not 
less for the purity of his life than his intellectual 
gifts, " which was the best of all the various sects 
of Islam." He replied : — " Suppose a great monarch 
be enthroned in a palace to which access is given by 
numerous gates, and suppose that through either you 



214 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

can see the Sultan and obtain admission to his 
presence, would you ask which gate was the best? 
Your business is with the prince, and not with those 
at either gate," a sufficiently plain assertion that 
all religions are alike which lead the human soul 
to God. Akbar pressed the mullah with a second 
question : — " which in his opinion was the best of 
all religions ? " The mullah replied indirectly. " The 
best men of every religion," he said, "followed the 
best religion." 

AKBAR AS RULER. 

The system by which Akbar regulated the affairs 
of his vast empire was notable for its simplicity. 
There were fifteen subahs, or provinces, over each 
of Vv'hich was placed a Viceroy or Governor, with 
full civil and military powers. Each sent regular 
and detailed reports to the Emperor, who scrutinised 
them rigidly, and insisted that his officers should 
discharge their duties with the utmost efficiency. 
That his soldiers might not break out into mutiny, 
nor their leaders attempt to throw off the imperial 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 215 

control, he reformed the organisation of his army. 
He substituted, as far as possible, money payments 
for the old custom of jagirs, or grants of lands ; and 
when circumstances prevented this charge from being 
carried out, he established a close supervision by 
the central authority of the holders of the old 
military fiefs. And as an additional check on his 
provincial generals, he instituted a kind of feudalism, 
by which the native tributary princes and the Mughal 
nobles were brought into exactly the same relation 
towards the sovereign. 

The head of the judicial system was the Mir-i-adl^ 
or " lord justice," who resided in the capital ; and 
under him were the Kasis, or magistrates, in the 
principal towns. The police in the cities obeyed 
the orders of the Kotwal, or superintendent, who 
was also a magistrate. " In country districts where 
police existed at all, they were left to the manage- 
ment of the landholders or revenue officers. But 
throughout rural India no regular police force can 
be said to have existed for the protection of person 
and property until after the establishment of British 
rule. The Hindu village had its hereditary watch- 



2l6 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

man, who in many parts of the country was taken 
from the predatory castes, and as often leagued 
with the robbers as opposed to them. The land 
holders and revenue officers had each their own set 
of myrmidons who plundered the peasantry in their 
names." 

Akbar's revenue system was founded on the old 
native customs, and so well adapted to the circum- 
stances of the country that, in its main features, it 
survives to the present day. In the first place he 
caused an exact measurement to be made of the 
land. His officers then took steps to ascertain the 
amount of produce per acre and fix the government 
share {i.e., one third). And lastly they settled the 
rates at which this third share might be commuted 
into a money payment. These processes, known as 
"the land settlement," were at first repeated every 
year ; but as an annual inquiry inflicted continual 
annoyance and extortion on the peasant, the Emperor 
modified it into a decennial one. The sums due 
being very strictly collected, a large revenue flowed 
regularly into Akbar's coffers, and enabled him not 
only to maintain his vast armies and his imperial 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 21 7 

pomp, but also to afford a liberal — almost a lavish — 
expenditure upon public works. 

The imperial establishment was ordered on a scale 
of the utmost magnificence : Akbar had never fewer 
than 5000 elephants and 12,000 horses at his dis- 
posal, besides hawking and hunting services, and 
these were all kept in admirable condition, without 
waste or extravagance. His camp equipage con- 
sisted of pavilions and portable houses, enclosed 
within a high wall of canvas screens, and con- 
taining great halls for public receptions, banqueting 
chambers, galleries for exercise, and retiring rooms, 
— all constructed of the costliest materials and 
decorated in the most sumptuous style. The area 
thus occupied measured 1530 yards square. The 
tents and outer wall were, externally, of the royal 
colour, vermilion : but were ornamented within in 
various colours and patterns. Gilded balls and 
pinnacles gave to the whole the semblance of a 
Moorish castle erected inside the camp ; which, in 
itself, was a noble and a stirring spectacle — a city 
of many-coloured tents, disposed in beautiful order, 
and covering a space of about five miles in length. 



2l8 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

The annual feasts of the imperial birthday and 
the vernal equinox were the occasions of the greatest 
display and pageantry, when the imperial splendour 
was revealed on the most extensive scale. The 
rejoicings were protracted over several days, and 
comprised a general fair, procession upon procession, 
and all kinds of military shows. The Emperor took 
his seat in a sumptuous pavilion, which was hung 
all around with coverings to temper the glare and 
heat of the sunshine. About two acres of ground 
shone with silk and gold hangings, and rich carpets, 
as radiant and costly as velvet, embroidered in gold 
and pearl and precious stones, could make them. 
The nobles had smaller pavilions, in which they 
received visits from each other, and sometimes from 
the Emperor. Rich dresses of honour, jewels, horses 
and elephants, were lavishly distributed as gifts. 
Akbar, according to an Oriental custom, was weighed 
in golden scales against gold, silver, rare perfumes, 
and other articles and substances, in succession, and 
the different quotas were divided among the fortunate 
spectators. Almonds and other fruit, wrought in 
gold and silver, were scattered about by the Emperor's 



AKBAR THE GREAT. 219 

own hand, and eagerly scrambled for by the 
obsequious courtiers. On the high day of each 
festival Akbar occupied the purple cushion in his 
marble palace, surrounded by nobles wearing tall 
heron plumes, and sparkling with diamonds, like a 
starry firmament Many hundred elephants passed 
before him in procession, all most gorgeously adorned, 
and the leading elephant of each company wore gold 
plates on its head and breast, studded with rubies 
and emeralds. Trains" of gaily caparisoned horses 
followed ; and after them came numbers of lions and 
tigers, rhinoceroses and panthers, hunting leopards, 
hounds, and hawks,- the picturesque if somewhat 
barbaric display closing with squadrons of horsemen, 
arrayed in cloth of gold and caracoUing to the sound 
of drum and cymbal. In a word, nothing was 
wanting which could impress the spectator with a 
vivid idea of the wealth, resources, and dignity of 
the empire, and of the greatness and power of its 
lord. 

Yet, amidst all this gorgeous pomp and splendid 
circumstance, that lord appeared in a severe sim- 
plicity which showed that he valued them only 
15 



220 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

for their significance and political uses. European 
travellers who visited his court agree in asserting 
that he employed less show or state than any other 
Asiatic prince, and that, when administering justice, 
he always stood or sat "below the throne." They 
add, in reference to this remarkable man, — the great- 
est of Indian rulers, equally renowned as statesman, 
warrior, legislator, and reformer, — that he could be 
both kindly and majestical, merciful and austere ; 
that he was well skilled in the mechanical arts, in 
making guns and casting ordnance ; that he was 
strangely abstemious in diet, and so incessantly active 
that he slept but three hours a day ; and, finally, 
that he was " affable to the vulgar, seeming to grace 
them and their presents with more respectful cere- 
monies than the grandees ; loved and feared of his 
own, and terrible to his enemies," 



CHAPTER IV. 

JAKANGER : THE CONQUEROR OF THE WORLD. 
AN ENGLISH EMBASSY. 

OELIM, the eldest son 'of Akbar, on his accession 
to power, assumed the sonorous title of Jahanger, 
" The Conqueror of the World." He had reigned 
for ten years when an English ambassador arrived 
at his court. 

As far back as 1599 some London merchants had 
applied to Queen Elizabeth for permission to trade 
to the East Indies, and in the following year had 
obtained the charter they desired. The Company 
thus founded, which, as the East India Company, 
was to have so long and glorious a history, limited 
its operations at first to the great islands in the 
Indian seas — to Java and Sumatra. In 1608, how- 
ever, the Company's agents reported that in these 
islands the cloths and calicoes of Hindustan were 



222 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

in great request, and advised the establishment of 
factories at Cambray and Surat, in the hope of mono- 
polising the trade between the islands and that part 
of the Indian mainland. In 1612, some English 
ships, which were endeavouring to open up trade 
at Surat, were attacked by a largely superior Portu- 
guese force, but, after a desperate struggle, succeeded 
in beating it off. As the natives here, and indeed, 
wherever the Portuguese settled, hated them for 
their cruelty and extortion, they rejoiced in their 
defeat, and consented to an English settlement. 

In the following year, one of the Surat factors 
visited Ahmedabad. What he saw and heard in- 
duced him to advise the authorities in London that 
it would be advantageous to trade directly with the 
markets in the interior ; and he suggested that an 
envoy should be sent from England to obtain the 
necessary facilities from " the Great Mogul." The 
person selected for this difficult and even dangerous 
errand was a man of parts and courage, Sir Thomas 
Roe, who had already distinguished himself by good 
service at home and abroad. He left England in 
the spring of 161 5, and on his arrival in India 



JAHANGER. 223 

repaired without delay to Jahanger's splendid court 
at Agra, where he resided for upwards of three 
years. The advice he sent home to his employers 
was always sound and shrewd. They were not to 
attempt, he said, to become a political power ; nor to 
waste their money, like the Portuguese, in building 
forts and batteries. No better counsel could have 
been given at the time. So long as the whole of 
Northern India was in the hands of a powerful 
sovereign, it was wise for a body of traders to trust 
to his protection. It was impossible for them to 
dispense with it, and hopeless for a handful of 
foreigners to attempt to maintain themselves in a 
corner of the empire by force of arms. The time was 
yet to come when in the anarchy and feebleness of 
the Mughal empire the European Powers were to 
find their opportunity. 

jahanger's court. 

Sir Thomas Roe was a careful observer, and 
collected and recorded a good deal of interesting 
information relative to the court of Jahanger and 
the condition of the Empire. Though as a writer 



224 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

by no means addicted to the use of superlatives or 
of exaggerated language, he speaks in the most 
glowing terms of the magnificence of the Imperial 
Court. He does justice to the liberal courtesy of 
the nobles, and describes the richness and elegance 
of the entertainments they gave in his honour. His 
reception was always most cordial ; though his 
presents and his retinue were on a scale of modera- 
tion which seemed almost meanness amidst so much 
wealth and splendour. The emperor seems to have 
conceived a great respect for him, and specially ex- 
empted him from all humiliating ceremonial. On 
public occasions he was constantly exalted to the 
highest seat, and the emperor at all times admitted 
him to the most familiar intercourse. 

With one of James I.'s gifts, Jahanger was much 
delighted : namely, a richly gilded coach, in which 
he was pleased to display his corpulent figure before 
the eyes of his subjects, as it rolled and rumbled, 
luxurious but unwieldy, through the streets of Agra. 

The Great Mogul (as the English then called him) 
spent his day in the following manner : — 

Every day he showed himself to his people from 



JAHANGER. 225 

a window of the palace which overlooked the plain ; 
at noon he was there again to see his elephants 
mustered, his officers of rank being stationed in an 
enclosure underneath ; afterwards he retired to enjoy 
a siesta in his harem. At three he attended the 
Durbar, whence he proceeded to the Gazaleum, a 
fair court, in the midst of which was a throne. Here 
he received his most intimate friends, and discoursed 
on State matters ; after which he feasted, generally 
closing the day by "getting intoxicated. His in- 
temperance was one of his worst vices, though he 
was careful to keep from the wine-cup till after the 
hour of evening prayer. But, having once begun, 
he seldom left off until he fell asleep ; when the 
lights were put out and the guests withdrew. On 
such occasions he was excessively amiable, and the 
more wine he drank the more affable he became. 

Once, with some pictures Sir Thomas had taken 
to the palace, Jahanger was greatly delighted, and 
he fell to drinking the Alicant wine Sir Thomas had 
given to him * giving tastes of it to several about 
him, and then sending for a full bottle " for his guest, 
saying, " It began to sour so fast that it would spoil 



226 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

before he could drink it, and that Sir Thomas had 
none." This done, " he turned himself to sleep, the 
candles were popped out, and I groped my way out 
in the dark." On another occasion, " the good king 
fell to disputing on the laws of Moses, Christ, and 
Mahomet, and in his drink was so kind that he 
turned to me and said, * I am a king ; you shall be 
welcome, Christians, Moors, and Jews,' and continued 
that ' he meddled not with their faith, they came all 
in love, and he would protect them from wrong ; 
they lived under his protection, and none should 
oppress them.' This he often repeated, but being 
very drunk he fell to weeping, and in divers passions, 
and so he kept on till midnight." 

jahanger's character. 

It was dangerous to appeal from Jahanger drunk 
to Jahanger sober. He frequently desired his boon 
companions to ask no favours of him, lest Selim at 
the banquet might promise what Jahanger on the 
throne could not perform. A courtier having indis- 
creetly referred in public to the previous night's 
debauch, the Emperor affected profound surprise, 



JAHANGER. 22/ 

inquired what other persons had taken part in so 
audacious a violation of the law, and ordered those 
named to be so severely bastinadoed that one of 
them died. In public he observed a precisian pro- 
priety, and admitted none into his presence whose 
breath, gait or appearance indicated that he had 
been drinking. Any offender, on being detected, 
was soundly whipped. 

Jahanger inherited much of his father's fondness 
for theological inquiry. He was equally partial to 
discussion with learned men of all creeds, though the 
result can hardly be described as satisfactory, since 
he was wont to declare that all prophets were im- 
postors, and that he himself, but for his indolence, 
could form a better religious system than any yet 
given to the world. Like his father also, he inclined 
more towards Christianity than any other creed. He 
allowed two of his nephews to become Christians, 
and had figures of Christ and the Virgin at the head 
of his rosary. As a matter of policy, however, he 
conformed much more strictly than his father had 
done to the external observance of Islam. 

The Emperor was a man of good abilities, and 



228 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

spoke Persian, Turki, Turkish and Hindustani with 
equal facility. He gave audience every day from 
the throne, when any person who had performed 
the proper ceremonies could obtain admission to his 
presence. To ensure easy access for petitioners, he 
caused a chain to be hung from a part of the wall 
of the citadel which was within the reach of all 
comers ; it communicated with a cluster of golden 
bells in the Emperor's own apartment, and their soft 
chime immediately informing him of the appearance 
of a suitor, he was thus enabled to baffle his 
officers if they wished to keep from him inconvenient 
information. 

He permitted a freedom of speech which no Euro- 
pean sovereign would have tolerated. The son of 
a Bamian widow having complained to him that, 
though his father had died worth 200,000 rupees, his 
mother doled out to him an allowance insufficient 
for his support, the Emperor sent for her, and ordered 
her to pay to her son 50,000 rupees, and to himself 
double that amount. " God save your Majesty," cried 
the woman : " I find my son hath some reason to 
demand the property of his father, as being of his 



JAHANGER. 229 

and my flesh and blood, and therefore our heir. But 
I would gladly know your Majesty's relationship to 
him, since you also seek a share of his inheritance ? " 
Jahanger laughed at the woman's frankness and 
dismissed her. 

His rigorous sense of justice sometimes led him 
into excessive severity. An adopted son of Nur- 
Mahal, his favourite Sultana, having harshly denied 
satisfaction to the parents of a child whom his 
elephant had trodden under foot, and on their 
breaking into loud complaints banished them from 
their native place, they proceeded to Lahore and laid 
their wrongs before Jahanger, who immediately gave 
orders that they should receive due compensation. 
But instead of obeying the Emperor's command the 
prince threw them into prison. On their liberation, 
they returned to Lahore, and in spite of Nur-Mahal's 
interposition, obtained a second audience of Jahanger, 
who, on hearing their story, summoned the prince to 
his presence, caused him to be bound, mounted the 
complainants on an elephant, and ordered its driver 
to trample him to death. He buried the unfortunate 
prince, however, with great magnificence, and mourned 



230 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

him for two months. " I loved him," he said ; " but 
kings must be governed by justice, not affection." 

Sir Thomas Roe hints that the Emperor was not 
so generous as he wished the world to think he was. 
According to an Oriental custom, already described, 
he was weighed on his birthdays against gold, silver, 
spices, and other commodities, in rotation, the whole 
being distributed, it was supposed, among the multi- 
tude. The gold and precious stones being packed 
in cases. Sir Thomas Roe could not see their 
quality, nor be sure even of their existence ; but he 
had good reason to believe that all the valuables 
brought out on these occasions were returned to the 
imperial treasury, and that the free distribution was 
confined to money, corn, and butter. 

THE LIGHT OF THE HAREM. 

The most brilliant and attractive figure in the 
drama of Jahanger's reign is that of his beautiful 
queen, Nur-Mahal, whose career contains all the 
elements of a highly-wrought romance, and has 
furnished a theme for Western as well as Oriental 
poets. In one of the episodes of " Lalla Rookh," 



JAHANGER. 231 

Moore introduces this charming woman, whose 

personal gifts and graces it would seem, from 

contemporary records, he does not exaggerate. For 

hers was that exquisite loveliness, so various in 

expression : — 

"Which plays 
Like the light upon Autumn's soft shadowy days, 
Now here and now there, giving warmth as it flies; 
From the lips to the cheek, from the cheek to the eyes : 
Now melting in mist, and now breaking in gleams, 
Like the glimpses a saint hath of Heav'n in his dreams. 
When passive, it seemed as if that very grace. 
That charm of all others, was born with her face ! 
And when angry— for ev'n in the tranquillest climes 
Light breezes will ruffle the blossoms sometimes — 
The short passing anger but seemed to awaken 
New beauty, like flowers that are sweetest when shaken." 

The grandfather of this celebrated beauty was a 
native of Teheran, in Persia, where he held a high 
civil office. His son, Mirza Ghiyas, fell into destitute 
circumstances, and resolved to seek a livelihood for 
himself and his family in India. Misfortune, however, 
still dogged his footsteps, and before the caravan 
with which he travelled reached Kandahar they 
suffered the most terrible privations. To increase 
their distress, his wife, immediately on their arrival, 



232 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

gave birth to a daughter, the future Nur-Mahal ; but 
in the then straits of the family, cold was the 
welcome accorded to the unfortunate babe, and her 
parents, unable to provide for themselves, resolved to 
trust her to the care of Providence. Accordingly 
they exposed her on the road by which the caravan 
vv^as bound to proceed, and covering the infant with 
leaves, the weeping mother retired to a distance, 
to watch if haply some benevolent stranger should 
stretch forth the hand of rescue. Such proved to 
be the case. A principal merchant of the party was 
struck by her infantile sweetness, took charge of her, 
and resolved to educate her as his own child. A 
nurse being needed, he turned, all unwittingly, to 
the infant's mother, and his attention being thus 
drawn to the family and their poverty, he relieved 
their immediate wants. He soon discovered that the 
father was a man of capacity and experience ; and, on 
reaching Lahore, introduced him to the Emperor 
Akbar, who hastened to employ him, and was so 
satisfied with his services that he advanced him with 
exceptional rapidity from grade to grade, until he 
became the imperial Treasurer. 



JAHANGER. 233 

Meanwhile, his daughter, Mher-al-Nissa, " The Sun 
of Women," as she was then called, grew in loveliness 
and grace with each succeeding year ; and her natural 
gifts of mind and intellect were so carefully cultivated 
that she was scarcely less famous for her wit than 
her beauty. It is certain that her ambition was 
inferior to neither ; and as she was well aware of her 
charms, she aspired to share the imperial throne with 
the heir of Akbar. Her mother having free access 
to the Emperor's harem, she frequently accompanied 
her thither, and made use of these opportunities to 
gain the attention, and eventually to fascinate the 
regard, of Prince Selim. With her tall, lithe form 
arrayed in the soft folds of the graceful zara — her 
luxuriant dark tresses and deep eloquent eyes but 
partially concealed by the airy tissues of the gauzy 
veil which drooped from the crown of her head round 
about her slender throat and beautiful bosom, — she 
completely dazzled the eyes of Prince Selim. Her 
influence over him was complete when she danced in 
his presence like the daughter of Herodias, or sang 
her native wood-notes wild with a voice which seemed 
to breathe the very soul of music. 



234 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Her parents, however, did not share their daughter's 
ambition ; and when they discovered the Prince's 
passion for her made it known to the Emperor. 
Akbar immediately remonstrated with his son, and 
at the same time advised that the beautiful girl 
should be married, and removed from the Prince's 
neighbourhood. Her father thereupon betrothed her 
to Shir Afgan Khan, — " the conqueror of the lion," a 
young Persian, who had recently entered the imperial 
service, and upon whom Akbar had bestowed a large 
fief in Bengal. The fair maiden evinced no objection 
to the match ; but to Jahanger it was positively 
hateful. He petitioned his father ; he threatened 
the bridegroom ; and when he had been about a year 
on the throne, charged his foster-brother, Kutb-ud- 
din, whom he appointed viceroy of Bengal, to secure 
for him the possession of the beautiful woman he 
loved so passionately. He supposed, no doubt, that 
the husband's consent could be obtained by adequate 
bribes ; but he, too, was in love with his charming 
wife, and when he learned the nature of the sacrifice 
expected of him, threw up his command, and left off 
wearing arms, as a sign that he was no longer in the 



JAHANGER. 235 

Emperor's employment. Several attempts seem to 
have been made upon his life, but he baffled them 
by his vigilance and courage. At length, the viceroy, 
having made an excuse to visit the part of the pro- 
vince where the young Persian resided, sent to require 
his attendance. He obeyed the summons, but with 
a dagger concealed in his girdle. An angry alter- 
cation ended fatally. Shir Afgan slew the viceroy with 
his dagger, and was immediately put to death by the 
viceroy's attendants. 

The murder of the viceroy was dexterously attri- 
buted to a treasonable conspiracy, and proceedings 
were immediately taken against the murderer's family. 
Nur-Mahal was seized and sent a prisoner to Delhi. 
There the Emperor saw her, and offered her his hand. 
But whether she had learned to love her husband, 
and was indignant at the persecution which had 
resulted in his untimely death, — or whether she acted 
on some deliberate scheme of policy, — she rejected 
the honour, and displayed a dislike and even repug- 
nance which seemed to quench the Emperor's long- 
nourished passion. He placed her among his mother's 

attendants, and apparently forgot her very existence. 

16 



2^6 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

After awhile Nur-Mahal's ambition revived, and 
her regret for her dead husband became a thing of 
the past. The problem which then presented itself 
was how to recognise her imperial lover, who for 
six years had never once visited her. Her craft, 
if it were really craft, had proved too subtle ; and 
in her stratagem, if such it were, she had gone too 
far, outwitting herself. She contrived, however, that 
stories should be circulated, so as to reach his ear, 
of her various accomplishments, her brilliant con- 
versation, and her natural charms ; as also of the 
elegance with which her industrious and skilful 
fingers, guided by her exquisite taste, had adorned 
the plain and incommodious apartments assigned 
to her by the Emperor in the first resentment of 
his slighted passion. 

Now, according to a custom of the Mughal Court, 
a kind of carnival was annually celebrated, in the 
imperial seraglio, on the Noroze^ — a festival held on 
the ninth day of the New Year. At this "fancy 
fair" the stalls were superintended by the ladies of 
the Zenana, who piled them up with stuffs in purple 
and gold, cloth of gold, delicate muslins, and costly 



JAHANGER. 237 

embroideries. The great attraction, however, on this 
occasion, was the presence of the sovereign, who 
made purchases at the different stalls, bargaining 
with the stall-keepers in high good humour, pre- 
tending to depreciate the quality of the wares, and 
disputing the prices put upon them. Jahanger had 
increased the number of these entertainments, which 
added largely to the gaiety of the Court ; and at 
one of them he discovered that the articles most 
in demand were those which testified to the skill, 
refinement, and diligence of his forgotten Nur-Mahal 
He heard, too, of her universal attractiveness ; and 
his old affection reviving as his curiosity kindled, 
he made his way to her apartments, where he was 
struck by their magnificence, but more by the beauty 
of their occupant, who, half reclining on a luxurious 
couch, was arrayed in some diaphanous gauzy material 
which indicated the graceful outlines of her figure, 
and only partially concealed her charms. On per- 
ceiving her visitor, she rose in real or pretended 
confusion, and did homage as usual by touching 
first the ground, and then her forehead, with her right 
hand. Then, with downcast eyes and a lovely blush 



238 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

on her countenance, she stood silent, the heaving of 
her rounded bosom alone betraying her agitation. 
Jahanger bade her be seated, and placed himself 
beside her. His passion overpowering him, he 
clasped her in his arms, and once more invited her 
to share his throne. She murmured a willing 
assent ; whereupon he threw round her neck a circlet 
of forty pearls, each valued at ;^4000, and ordered her 
to be proclaimed " Empress of the World." 

Their marriage, which took place immediately, was 
celebrated with unusual splendour ; and the honours 
lavished upon the beautiful bride were such as had 
never before been enjoyed by the consort of an 
Indian prince. Her name was stamped on the 
currency along with the Emperor's, and with the 
flattering legend — " Gold has acquired a hundred 
degrees of excellence in receiving the name of Nur- 
Jahan." For her name was changed from Nur-Mahal, 
"The Light of the Harem," to Nur-Jahan, "The 
Light of the World " ; and she was allowed to assume 
the title of Shahi, or Empress. 

If her supreme beauty won the Emperor's heart, 
it was her exceptional ability which prevailed over 



JAHANGER. 239 

his intellect, and perpetuated her ascendency. For 
nearly twenty years her authority was unquestioned, 
her will was law. She made her father Prime 
Minister, and raised her brother to high office. With 
great address she strengthened her position by inter- 
marrying her family with Jahanger's. The heir to 
the throne, Shah Jehan, found a wife in her niece; 
and her daughter was wedded to Prince Shehryar. 
No appointment was made without her knowledge ; 
no treaty concluded without her approval. The 
Emperor invariably sought her advice before he took 
any step of importance. On the whole, she exercised 
her vast influence to good purpose ; and to her must 
in fairness be attributed the salutary change which 
marked the conduct of Jahanger after the first few 
years of his reign, 

" He was still capricious and tyrannical," says 
the historian, "but he was no longer guilty of such 
barbarous cruelties as before ; and although he still 
carried his excess in wine to the lowest stage of 
inebriety, yet it was at night, and in his private 
apartments. In the occupations which kept him all 
day before the eyes of his subjects, he seems to have 



240 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

supported his character with sufficient dignity, and 
without any breaches of decorum." 

Nur-Jahan's capacity was exerted not only in state 
affairs, but in those matters which are usually 
regarded as the special province of her sex. The 
magnificence of the imperial court owed much to 
her refined taste, while the expenditure was diminished 
by her good management. She contrived numerous 
improvements in domestic furniture. She introduced 
women's dresses of a more elegant and becoming 
design than any seen before, and it is still a moot 
point in India whether it was she or her mother 
who invented attar of roses. One of the accomplish- 
ments by which she captivated Jahanger is said to 
have been the facility with which she improvised 
verses. She possessed quite an imperial taste for 
building. 

" In the whole empire," says Jahanger, " there 
is scarcely a city in which the Shahi has not left 
some lofty structure or some ample garden as a 
splendid monument of her magnificence." 

Such was Nur-Mahal, " The Light of the Harem," 
or Nur-Jahan, "The Light of the World." 



JAH ANGER. 24 1 

THE STORY OF MOHABAT KHAN. 

There was a certain Mohabat Khan, whom Sir 
Thomas Roe describes as " a noble and generous 
man, well beloved by all, and the King's sole 
favourite," whose increasing influence in the State 
aroused the jealous suspicions of the Shahi. He 
was the foremost subject in the empire, and seems 
to have been the most popular. Nur-Jahan was 
one of those who not only desire to occupy the first 
place, but are loth that any should occupy the 
second. At length she resolved on crushing Mo- 
habat's influence, and caused accusations of oppres- 
sion and embezzlement to be preferred against 
him. 

He was summoned from the Deccan to make his 
defence ; but he came accompanied by five thousand 
Rajputs, who were loyally attached to his person. 
On reaching the imperial camp, then stationed on 
the bank of the Jelum, he was denied admission 
to the imperial presence ; and suspecting that his 
ruin had been determined upon, he resolved, before 
he coulb be separated from his troops, to strike a 



242 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

blow SO sudden and so daring that it should paralyse 
the action of his enemies (March, 1626). 

Jahanger, at this critical moment, was on the march 
to Kabul ; and was preparing to cross the river by 
a bridge of boats which he had constructed for the 
purpose. Having watched the safe passage of his 
soldiers, he was about to follow, with his body-guards 
and attendants, when, at daybreak, Mohabat, after 
occupying the bridge with two thousand men, sud- 
denly surrounded the imperial pavilion, and disarmed 
and made prisoners of the Emperor's retinue, before 
the nature and object of the attack was understood. 
Jahanger was sleeping off the effects of his last night's 
debauch, when he was wakened by the tramp of 
armed men. Starting up, he seized his sword ; but 
a bewildered glance around showed the folly of 
resistance, and, comprehending the situation, he 
exclaimed, " Ah, Mohabat Khan ! traitor ! what is 
this?" 

Mohabat, prostrating himself, expressed his deep 
regret that he had been compelled by the artifices 
of his enemies to employ violence to obtain an 
audience of his lord and master ; adding that, as it 



JAIIANGER. 243 

was now the Emperor's usual hour for parade, it 
would be well for him to show himself in public, to 
prevent alarm or misrepresentation. Jahanger as- 
sented ; but, on pretence of dressing, endeavoured 
to retire to the women's apartments, that he might 
consult with Nur-Jahan. But Mohabat guessed his 
purpose, and begged him to dress where he was, 
that there might be no more delay. Jahanger then 
mounted one of his own horses, in the midst of the 
Rajputs, who received him with every mark of respect 
and deference ; but again Mohabat interfered, and 
placed him on the back of an elephant, where he 
would be more conspicuous, with a couple of armed 
Rajputs by his side. At this moment the Emperor's 
chief elephant-driver attempted to force his way 
through the Rajputs, that the Emperor might mount 
his own elephant ; but was cut down, on a sign from 
Mohabat. One of Jahanger's personal attendants 
contrived to reach him, though not without a wound, 
and was allowed to take his position by his master ; 
and the like permission was given to his cup-bearer. 
He was then conveyed to the camp of Mohabat, who 
repeatedly assured him of his personal safety, but 



244 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT.. 

added, significantly,— " And I too, am determined 
to be safe." 

Of this strange scene Nur-Jahan was no indifferent 
or listless spectator. Prompt to form and execute her 
resolutions, she hastily disguised herself, got into an 
ordinary litter, and was carried through the guards, 
unsuspected. With equal good fortune she passed 
the bridge, and reached the imperial camp. Making 
known to her brother and the principal omrahs the 
capture of their sovereign, she insisted, in glowing 
language, that they should hasten at once to his 
rescue, reproaching them bitterly for every minute's 
delay. During the night, a noble named Fedai 
Khan made a spirited effort to carry off Jahanger, 
by swimming the river with a small body of horse- 
men ; but their approach was detected, and it was 
with extreme peril that, under a storm of arrows 
and javelins, they repassed the river, not without 
some empty saddles. 

Early next day, Nur-Jahan, in person, led the 
imperial army to the attack. Seated in the howdah 
of a gigantic elephant, and armed with bows and 
arrows, she nursed in her lap the infant daughter of 



JAHANGER. 245 

Prince Shehriyar, in order to stimulate the loyalty 
of her troops. The bridge of boats having been set 
on fire by the Rajputs, the army passed by a ford 
which had been discovered lower down the river — 
a difficult ford, narrow and irregular, with deep water 
on either side, and intersected by dangerous pools. 
The imperial soldiers struggled through it as best 
they could, but not without falling into great dis- 
order ; and on reaching the shore, with their clothes 
and armour wetted, their bows unbent, and their 
powder spoiled, they were struck at by the fierce 
Rajputs before they could make good their footing, 
and compelled to fight under overwhelming dis- 
advantages. 

From the higher ground incessant volleys of balls, 
rockets, and arrows were poured upon the Mughals, 
who, after exhibiting the greatest bravery and perse- 
verance, were compelled to retreat. The victorious 
Rajputs pursued them relentlessly, and a terrible rout 
ensued. The ford was choked with horses and 
elephants, and the fugitive soldiers, unable to ex- 
tricate themselves, perished in great numbers — some 
trampled upon by the affrighted animals, others lost 



246 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

in the deep pools, others borne away by the current. 
Furious was the Rajput assault upon Nur-Jahan, 
who fought with all the courage of a Semiramis. 
Her elephant had been driven into the thickest of the 
fight, where a crowd of Rajput warriors hemmed it 
in ; balls and arrows whistled round and about ; three 
drivers in succession were killed as they sat in front 
of her howdah ; and a missile wounded the infant 
who was cradled on her knees. Still undaunted, she 
bore the storm and stress of battle until she had 
emptied two quivers of arrows ; nor would she then 
consent to fly, so that the chief ofiicer of her house- 
hold was forced to mount her elephant, and, despite 
her angry remonstrances, convey her back to the 
camp. 

The discomfiture of the imperial army was com- 
plete ; and, utterly broken and spent, its remnants 
retired to Lahore, where Nur-Jahan received a mes- 
sage from the Emperor, entreating her to join him 
in his captivity. She eagerly consented, hoping that 
before long . a revolution of Fortune's wheel would 
effect the release of her husband and herself And, 
in truth, Mohabat's position was more precarious 



JAHANGER, 247 

than it. seemed. The ascendency of the Rajputs was 
offensive to the rest of his troops ; he himself made 
enemies daily by his violent temper and haughty 
demeanour, and the provinces still remained faithful 
to the Emperor, two of whose sons were at liberty. 
He felt that the ground trembled beneath his feet, 
and that he must compass his ends by artifice rather 
than force. But in duplicity he was no match for 
the Emperor when inspired by a woman's wit, and 
at the time he thought his influence over Jahanger 
most firmly established the latter was secretly pre- 
paring his overthrow. 

As the army advanced towards Kabul, the friendly 
disposition of the Afghans inspired Nur-Jahan with 
fresh hopes, and she began, through trustworthy 
agents, to enlist suitable men at different points, 
some of whom were instructed to straggle into camp 
as if in quest of service, while others were to wait 
for orders. She then made Jahanger suggest that 
the troops of all the jagirdars, or military fiefs, should 
be called out, and when she was summoned to put 
into the field her own boy, she professed great 
indignation at being treated like an ordinary subject, 



248 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

and boasted that her contingent should not prove 
inferior to that of the wealthiest noble. She then 
arrayed her old troops in such a manner as to 
emphasise their inferiority, enlisted recruits as if to 
complete her quota, and at the same time sent orders 
to those already engaged to repair by twos and threes 
to the camp. When Mohabat Khan awoke to a per- 
ception of the stratagem played upon him it was too 
late to offer any opposition, for the imperial soldiers 
had assembled in large numbers, and he allowed 
Jahanger to persuade him not to accompany him 
to the muster of the Empress's troops, lest his life 
should be in danger. Jahanger was attended to the 
review by his Rajput guards, but his own soldiers 
immediately closed in around him and effected his 
deliverance. 

Jahanger then repaired to Lahore, where he ad- 
dressed himself to the task of re-organising the 
government, which, during his detention, had fallen 
into anarchy and disorder. Afterwards he set out 
on his annual visit to the beautiful Kashmir valley. 
Soon after his arrival there, Prince Shehriyar was 
attacked with an illness of such severity that he was 



JAHANGER. 249 

compelled to return to the warmer climate of Lahore. 
The Emperor made an attempt to follow him, but 
was prevented by an asthmatic affection, which 
rapidly grew worse, and at length terminated the life 
and reign of Jahanger on the 28th of October, 1627. 
He was then in the sixtieth year of his age and 
the twenty-third of his reign. 



CHAPTER V. 

SHAH JAHAN : — " THE TRUE STAR OF THE FAITH." 

"TAURING the latter years of his father's reign, 
Shah Jahan, the eldest of Jahanger's sons, had 
been in open revolt against him. 

On the death of his father he immediately marched 
from the Deccan to take possession of the vacant 
throne, and arriving at Agra in January 1628, 
caused himself to be proclaimed by the sonorous 
titles of " The True Star of the Faith," " Second Lord 
of Happy Conjunctions," and " Muhammad, the king 
of the World." His brother, Prince Shehriyar, en- 
deavoured to contest the succession with him, and 
was known to be favoured by the Empress Nur- 
Jahan. But his troops were defeated near Lahore ; 
his partisans then surrendered him in the hope of 
propitiating Shah Jahan, and he was afterwards put 
to death. Nur-Jahan, however, was treated with 



SHAH JAHAN. 251 

indulgence, and though her liberty was to some 
extent contracted, she was allowed an income of 
;^2 5,000 a year, with a palace and a suitable retinue. 
Her attachment to the memory of her husband seems 
to have been sincere. She wore no colour but 
white, which in the East is the colour of mourning, 
abstained from all the amusements of society, and 
lived in complete seclusion. She died in 1646, and 
by her express desire was buried in a tomb which 
she had erected close to that of her husband at 
Lahore. 

Shah Jahan's reign extended from 1628 to 1658 ; 
so that it was contemporaneous with the stirring 
period of English history which includes the reign 
of Charles I., the Civil War, the Commonwealth, 
and the Protectorate down to the death of Oliver 
Cromwell. 

Like the reigns of the Great Mughals generally, 

it was marked by conspiracies and rebellions, by 

wars and by domestic treason. Under Shah Jahan, 

however, the Muhammadan empire touched its apogee 

of wealth and power. Ahmednagar was conquered 

and annexed ; Golconda and Bijapur became tributary 
17 



252 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

States ; Kandahar was reconquered from the Persians ; 
Balkh was subdued. One of the most interesting 
episodes was 

THE REBELLION OF KHAN JEHAN LODI. 

I am not quite certain who Khan Jehan zvas — 
except that he was an Afghan, and possessed the 
pride, courage, and fiery spirit of his race. Some 
authorities say he was low-born, others that he was 
descended from the imperial family of Lodi. But, 
at all events, he rose to high military employment 
during the reign of Jahanger, and was in command 
in the Deccan at the time of his death. When Shah 
Jahan set out for Agra, he refused to join him, 
marched into Malwa, and seemed to aim at carving 
out with his sword an independent sovereignty. 
Mohabat, who, having taken the side of Shah Jahan, 
had been made captain-general and KJiani-Khanan^ 
or " Plrst of the Nobles," was despatched against 
him with a powerful army ; but Khan Jehan craftily 
solicited his mediation with the new Emperor, pro- 
testing that he had been unable to decide between 
the different claimants to the throne ; but now that 






A, 1892 x<^/ 

SHAH J AH AN. ^>Cr OT 



" Shah Jahan alone remained of the dynasty of TImur, 
he could not hesitate to obey his commands." His 
submission was graciously accepted ; but he was re- 
moved to the government of Malwa, while that of 
the Deccan was given to Mohabat. 

The story runs that Shah Jahan cherished a secret 
animosity against this proud young Afghan warrior, 
for while in revolt against his father he had 
demanded Khan Jehan's permission to march across 
the Deccan, and had been refused. Moreover, the 
Khan had offered him a grave insult by sending him 
a present of a thousand rupees, a horse, and a dress 
of honour, as if he were a person of inferior rank. 
The Khan's envoy had too much regard for his life 
to deliver in person this degrading gift ; and when 
he got a safe distance, he placed it in the charge 
of a shepherd, to return it to the Khan, with the 
message that " if it were not unworthy for him to 
give, it was too insignificant for his servant to carry 
to a great prince." Thus Shah Jahan escaped the 
humiliation, but his knowledge that it had been 
designed hardened his heart against the Khan. 

After the Khan had made his submission he was 



254 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

invited to court ; but, on making his appearance, 
was ordered by the court chamberlain to perform 
certain prostrations, which he considered unworthy 
of his elevated rank. As he was not in a position to 
resent the discourtesy, he silently obeyed ; but his 
son, Azmut Khan, a brave, hot-tempered young 
warrior of sixteen, thinking he was kept longer than 
necessary in the prostrate attitude, rose before the 
signal was given ; and when the irate chamberlain 
struck him on the head with his wand and required 
him to repeat the ceremony, drew his sword, and 
aimed a swashing blow, which threatened to cut 
short his tormentor's official career. The stir and 
the excitement caused by this terrible breach of 
etiquette may be more easily conceived (as the 
novelists say) than described. The Emperor leaped 
from his throne, his nobles closed around him in a 
ring of defence, and the air sparkled with the flash 
of steel. Rushing from the presence, the Khan and 
his sons shut themselves up in their residence, with 
their faithful followers. One night, soon after dark, 
the Khan mustered them in fighting order, mounted 
his women on elephants, and placed them in the 



SHAH JAHAN. 255 

centre, and, with kettle-drums beating, marched out 
of Agra, remarking to the sentinels at the gate, " The 
tyrant will awake at the glad sounds of my departure, 
but he shall tremble at my return." 

DEATH OF KHAN JEHAN. 

Being swiftly pursued by the imperial forces, he 
was overtaken on the bank of the river Chambal, 
and attacked while engaged in passing his household 
over to the opposite side. To cover this movement, 
the Afghans fought with desperate resolution against 
overwhelming numbers, until scarce one man in ten 
remained unhurt, while their chief himself was bleed- 
ing from many wounds. His sons, Hussein and 
Azmut, then implored him to attempt to ford the 
river, while they maintained to the last the unequal 
combat. He reluctantly consented, but only on 
condition that one of them accompanied him, so 
that he might not be left childless. How warmly 
did the two brothers dispute for the privilege of 
dying to save a father's life ! The enemy, after a 
short interval, renewed the onset ; and in front of their 
grim array rode the high dignitary who had struck 



256 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Azmut at court. " Hussein," cried the young man, 
" 'tis the will of Allah ! Seest thou that yonder 
villain lives, and yet wouldst thou ask me to quit the 
field ? " Without another word, he dashed into the 
thick of the fight, while his father and brother made 
haste to cross the stream. 

The chamberlain was a Kalmuk, a man of immense 
strength, and when he saw the young man spurring 
towards him, rejoiced in the certainty of an easy 
triumph. He pushed forward to the encounter, but 
Azmut swerved aside, and drawing his bow, sent an 
arrow crash into the forehead of the giant, who dropped 
from his saddle, and fell dead under his horse's feet. 
Then, with a clatter of hoofs, the infuriated Mughals 
swept down upon Azmut and his little band, cutting 
them to pieces, for not one would yield himself a 
prisoner. 

Having crossed the Chambal in safety, the Khan 
rallied the few survivors of the lost battle, and rapidly 
traversing Bundclkhand, found shelter in Doulatabad. 
The Emperor then resolved to take the field in 
person, and, at the head of 10,000 cavalry, marched 
into the Deccan. Halting at Burhanpur, he sent 



SHAH J AH AN. 257 

three divisions by different routes against the insur- 
gents ; but the rapidity of the Khan's movements 
enabled him for some time to baffle pursuit. Gradu- 
ally, however, his partisans wearied of a campaign 
which brought with it no prospect cf pay or plunder ; 
his allies were defeated, and submitted to the 
Emperor ; and in a last attempt to rally the people 
of Bundelkhand against the sovereign of Delhi he 
was surprised by an imperial army under the wazir, 
Azam Khan. Though his following was reduced to 
four or five hundred Afghans, he made a noble 
resistance, fighting from sunrise to sundown, until 
his gallant little company was almost annihilated. 
Again he escaped from the lost field, and after an 
unsuccessful dash at the hill -fortress of Calinjer, in 
which he lost his son Hussein, he retreated towards 
the hills, closely pursued by 5,000 imperial troops. 
Thirst and fatigue compelled him to rest, with the 
score of warriors who still clung to his fortunes, on 
the margin of a small lake. Here the enemy overtook 
them ; and after a desperate but brief contest, they 
perished to a man. The Khan's head was struck off 
and sent to Shah Jahan. 



258 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

AT KANDAHAR. 

Some years of tranquillity followed, but in 1644 
the unsettled state of affairs in the countries of Balkh 
and Badakhshan tempted Shah Jahan to undertake 
their conquest. He placed a large army under the 
command of Ali Merdan Khan, who had formerly 
been the Persian governor of Kandahar, but had 
given up that city to Shah Jahan, and entered the 
imperial service. Ali Merdan broke through the 
d fificult passes of the snow-capped Hindu Kush, and 
with fire and sword swept across Badakhshan ; but the 
advance of winter compelled him to retire before he 
had secured a permanent footing in the country. 
Another campaign in the following year being 
equally unsuccessful, the Mughals turned their arms 
towards Balkh, which was subdued by the Emperor's 
son, Prince Morad, and annexed by proclamation to 
the imperial dominions (1646). This conquest, how- 
ever, was not allowed to remain long undisturbed. The 
expelled King of Balkh collected a force of fighting 
men beyond the Oxus, and carried fire and sword 
into the newly annexed territory. Sick of a service 



SHAH JAHAN. 259 

which brought with it neither distinction nor profit, 
Prince Morad left his government without permission, 
and was punished with exile from the court. Prince 
Aurangzib was sent to take his brother's place, and 
Shah Jahan repaired to Kabul in order to support him. 
These movements were of no avail ; and the enem.y 
increasing in numbers and activity, the Emperor 
deemed it prudent to abandon his conquests. 

Nor was this all. A Persian force recaptured 
Kandahar ; and two strenuous attempts made by 
Prince Aurangzib to recover this " key to India " 
proved unsuccessful. In the spring of 1653, the 
indefatigable Emperor sent a third and more formi- 
dable expedition under his eldest son, Prince Dara 
Shukoh, who had complained that no opportunities 
of military distinction had been given to him such 
as his brothers had enjoyed. On the day and at 
the hour fixed upon by the imperial astrologers as 
most auspicious, he opened his trenches before 
Kandahar, beginning the siege with an exceptionally 
formidable armament. A high and solid mound 
of earth was raised in order to command the town, 
and upon it was planted a battery of ten guns ; and 



260 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

the prince pushed his operations with a passionate 
persistency which was inspired, no doubt, by a desire 
to succeed where his brother, Prince Aurangzib, had 
failed. He made an urgent appeal to his nobles to 
support his honour, declaring that he would hold 
to his position until the town was taken. He seemed 
ubiquitous, now urging on the mines, now directing 
the approaches, now encouraging his artillerists, and 
always displaying an impetuous courage which 
amounted almost to recklessness. The defence, how- 
ever, was as steadfast as the attack was vehement. 
Every assault was beaten back with terrible loss ; 
and the disappointed prince made abject entreaties 
to his officers not to humiliate him to a level with the 
twice-beaten Aurangzib. He also spent large sums 
in gifts to magicians and other impostors, who pro- 
mised to put him in possession of the place by 
supernatural means. These were the expedients of 
desperation, and utterly useless. At length the 
prince was compelled, with shame and anger, to own 
himself beaten and to fall back upon the Indus, 
leaving behind him the best troops of his army, 
whom he had sacrificed in his frantic but futile 



SHAH JAHAN. 26 1 

endeavours. Thus pitiably terminated the last 
attempt of the Mughals to recover Kandahar, of 
which they had held precarious possession since it 
was first reduced by Babar. 

A DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD. 

Four sons had Shah Jahan, who at this time were 
all of mature age, and all inspired by an ardent love 
of power and independent authority. The eldest, 
Dara Shukoh, was forty-two, Shuja forty, Aurang- 
zib thirty-eight, and Morad about thirty. Morad, 
the youngest, was both brave and generous ; but 
his intellect was narrow and feeble, and he wasted 
himself on degrading pleasures. A slave to wine, 
he delighted nevertheless in manly exercises, and 
boasted that, with his strong arm and ready sword, 
he would make good his claim to the throne. Dara, 
the eldest, was, on the contrary, a prince of rare 
mental gifts and many accomplishments ; he was 
witty, affable, and liberal, frank and high-spirited, but 
of an overbearing and passionate temper, forming his 
opinions hastily and enforcing them dictatorially. 

The most cultivated man in the empire, he had 



262 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Studied the literature of Persia and Arabia; was 
thoroughly conversant with the Hindu philosophy ; 
and, under the guidance of the head of the Jesuit 
monastery at Agra, had obtained no inconsiderable 
knowledge of the history and religion of Europe. 
His religious sympathies were as broad, indeed, as 
those of his great ancestor Akbar ; and he had 
written a book which aimed at reconciling the Hindu 
and Muhammadan systems. His father said of him 
that he had great talents for command and all the 
dignity of character befitting the imperial office ; but 
that he was intolerant to all who had any pretensions 
to eminence, whence he was "good to the bad and 
bad to the good." 

Shuja, the second son, resembled in some respects 
his elder brother ; he was candid and generous, with 
brilliant talents, but these were neutralised by his 
indulgence in the lusts of the flesh. 

The ablest of the four was Aurangzib, a man with 
a will as strong as his intellect was subtle ; a mild 
temper, but a cold heart ; dominated by a restless 
and unscrupulous ambition, which possessed him like 
an evil spirit ; not naturally cruel, and yet capable 



SHAH JAHAN. 263 

of deeds of pitiless savagery when they were necessary 
to gain his ends ; sagacious and wary ; reserved in 
speech ; fertile in expedients ; prompt of action ; and 
a master of dissimulation. If you come to think 
what such a combination of qualities implies, you 
will determine that Aurangzib was a man to be 
feared as a rival and an enemy and mistrusted as 
a friend. He was born to rule ; and to the in- 
tellectual gifts indispensable to a great ruler he 
joined the advantages of a handsome person and a 
suave and fascinating address. His life was such a 
web of craft and hypocrisy that men have naturally 
supposed he was a hypocrite in his religious pro- 
fessions ; but though he used religion as the stalk- 
ing-horse of his policy, he was beyond doubt a 
sincere and even a bigoted Muhammadan. 

Says the historian : " He had been brought up by 
men of known sanctity, and had himself shown an 
early turn for devotion ; he at one time professed an 
intention of renouncing the world and taking the 
habit of a fakir ; and throughout his whole life he 
evinced a real attachment to his faith, in many things 
indifferent to his interest, and in some most seriously 



264 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

opposed to it His zeal was shown in prayers and 
in reading the Koran, in pious discourses, in abste- 
miousness (which he affected to carry so far as to 
subsist on the earnings of his manual labour), in 
humility of deportment, patience under provocation, 
and resignation in misfortunes, but, above all, in 
constant and earnest endeavours to promote his own 
faith and to discourage idolatry and infidelity. But 
neither religion nor morality stood for a moment in 
his way when it interfered with his ambition ; and 
though full of scruples at other times, he would stick 
at no crime that was requisite for the gratification of 
that passion." 

THE BATTLE OF THE BROTHERS. 

In 1657 Shah Jahan was seized with a dangerous 
illness. Immediately the rival ambitions of his sons 
began to weave a web of intrigue. Dara, the heir- 
apparent, attempted to prevent the news from reach- 
ing his brothers, stopping all correspondence and 
detaining travellers who might have carried the 
intelligence into the provinces ; but they were kept 
well informed by their secret agents, and Shuja and 



SHAH JAHAN. 265 

Morad hastened to assemble their armies and advance 
upon the capital, each assuming the royal title, and 
making it known that he laid claim to the succession. 
Aurangzib, according to his custom, acted with 
greater prudence. He refrained from adopting the 
royal title, and, while making elaborate military pre- 
parations, left Dara and Shuja to weaken each other. 
Meantime he spared no pains to win Morad over 
to his side, perceiving that he might be made an 
useful instrument. He wrote to him in a strain of 
fervent affection, urging him to assert his right to 
the crown, since Dara, he said, had forfeited it by 
his infidelity, and intimating that his own desire was 
to withdraw from the world's vanities and meditate 
on the things essential to eternal happiness in retire- 
ment at Mecca. The artifice was sufficiently trans- 
parent, but it imposed on the frank and unsuspicious 
Morad, who proceeded without delay to unite his 
forces with those of Aurangzib. The combined 
armies then marched upon the capital. To meet the 
formidable attacks with which he was threatened by 
his brothers, Dara acted with considerable energy. 
He despatched his son Soleiman Shukoh to oppose 



266 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Shuja, and Raja Jeswant Sing, a veteran Rajput 
chief, to intercept Morad and Aurangzib. But by 
this time the Emperor had sufficiently recovered to 
resume the direction of affairs, and he sent peremp- 
tory orders to Shuja to return to his government. 

Shuja, however, pretended to believe that these 
orders were really given by Dara, and continued his 
advance until he was encountered by Soleiman 
Shukoh in the neighbourhood of Benares, where, 
after a hard-fought battle, he was heavily defeated 
and compelled to escape into Bengal. 

So far Dara had been successful ; but when his 
Rajput general attacked Aurangzib and Morad, the 
result was very different. The technical skill of the 
elder and the brilliant courage of the younger brother 
overcame the dash and daring of the Rajputs ; their 
commander fled from the field, and retired into his 
own country, while the survivors of his army dis- 
persed to their own homes. Aurangzib, continuing 
his duplicity, loudly ascribed all the honour of the 
victory to his brother, and renewed his promises of 
allegiance and attachment with every appearance of 
earnestness. 



SHAH JAHAN. 267 

After a brief pause, the victorious brothers resumed 
their march towards Agra. The old Emperor made 
an effort to bring about a reconcihation, to which 
Dara, however, was not less averse than his brothers 
were, fraternal affection being as dust in the balance 
when weighed against the hope of a crown. Finding 
his efforts useless. Shah Jahan despatched his heir to 
fight for his father's throne and his own succession 
to it, saying, " Go, Dara, and may Allah bless thee ! 
But remember my words : if thou lose this battle, 
thou hadst better be careful never again to come into 
my presence." 

The battle of the brothers was fought in the 
immediate neighbourhood of Ajmere in the first week 
of June, 1658. Dara's army mustered 100,000 horse, 
30,000 foot, and eighty pieces of artillery ; while that 
of Morad and Aurangzib did not exceed 40,000 horse 
and foot The fight began with a charge of Dara's 
cavalry, which was rolled back by the heavy fire of 
the artillery with which Aurangzib had defended his 
front. Dara in person headed a second and more 
powerful attack, but with the like result. All Dara's 

force was then hurled repeatedly against the centre of 

18 



268 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

his enemies, where Aurangzib commanded. For some 
time, however, they were foiled by his vigilance and 
energy. Meanwhile a body of 3,000 Uzbeks fell 
upon Morad's division, raining in continual volleys 
of arrows. Morad's elephant shrank from the iron 
hail, and would have fled from the field if Morad 
had not ordered its feet to be chained — a device, 
however, which rendered retreat impossible for 
himself. 

While his soldiers were still wavering under the 
pressure of this vehement assault, they were taken 
in flank by a large body of Rajputs, whose leader, 
Ram Sing, conspicuous by his chaplet of pearls and 
robe of saffron, charged Morad's elephant, hurling 
his pike at the prince, and shouting to the driver to 
make the elephant kneel down. Morad, however, 
adroitly turned the javelin aside with his shield, and 
almost at the same moment shot his adversary dead 
with an arrow. In a furious burst of grief and rage, 
the Rajputs rushed to revenge the death of their chief, 
and the air was literally darkened with the flight of 
arrows, pikes, and other missiles. The battle eddied 
to and fro with so much vehemence in this quarter 



SHAH JAHAN. 269 

that -Aurangzib was preparing to advance to his 
brother's assistance, when his thoughts were diverted 
to his own desperate position by the terrible onset of 
Dara and his cavalry, who, having broken at last 
through the line of guns, fell crushingly in upon the 
centre of his brother's army. 

Aurangzib, however, preserved his coolness, and 
kept a watchful eye over every phase of the attack. 
Wherever it was most vehement, he presented his 
elephant, and by his voice and example rallied his 
discomfited followers, crying, " Allah is with you ! 
Allah is on your side ! and in Him alone is your 
refuge, your protection ! " While the battle eddied 
and swirled in conflicting currents, a Rajput chief 
leaped from his horse, and running up to Aurangzib's 
elephant, hacked away at the girths with his sword. 
The prince could not refuse his admiration to an 
action of so much daring, and in the moment of his 
own peril called to his soldiers to spare the life of 
this brave man, but he had already fallen beneath 
a dozen blows. In this crisis of the fight, when 
victory still hung dubious in the scales, Morad, having 
at last beaten off his assailants, was able to relieve the 



270 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

pressure on his brother by a rapid movement against 
Dara's right. Probably Dara's preponderance of 
numbers would have prevailed in the long run, but 
as he was pressing forward, and waving his hand to 
encourage his soldiers, a rocket struck his elephant, 
and made it so furious that he was compelled to leap 
from its back and mount a horse which was brought 
up to him. 

Bernier, the French traveller, who at the time was 
abiding in Agra, asserts that this was a manoeuvre 
on the part of Kallil-allah Khan, an officer of high 
position in Prince Dara's service, but secretly his 
bitter enemy — that Kallil, riding up to the prince, 
addressed him, saying, " God save your Majesty ! 
The victory is yours ; why do you tarry longer on 
your elephant? Nothing more remains to be done 
but to mount your horse and pursue yonder fugitives. 
Let us hasten to do so, that none may escape our 
swords ! " Dara, we are told, eagerly assented, and 
joined in the pursuit. Whether the story be true or 
not, this much is certain : that his sudden disappear- 
ance from the richly equipped howdah in which he 
had been visible to all his army gave rise to a report 



SHAH JAHAN. 27 1 

that he had been killed ; and the death of their leader 
is always sufficient to strike with panic an Oriental 
host. If their chief were dead, reasoned the soldiers, 
what gain could there be in further combat ? They 
dispersed in all directions ; and though Dara attempted 
to rally them, it was useless, the general advance of 
Morad and Aurangzib compelling him to abandon the 
lost field. With some 2,000 battle-soiled and weary 
horsemen, he rode back to Agra, where, ashamed to 
appear before his imperial father, he secured some 
valuables, and then, accompanied by his wife and two 
of his children, continued his flight to Delhi. 

aurangzib's ambitious schemes. 

Three days after this great victory, on which he 
had not failed to congratulate his brother Morad in 
the most affectionate terms, Aurangzib advanced to 
Agra, pitched his camp under its walls, and made 
himself master of it. After a politic delay, employed 
in sending messages to his father of the most filial 
character — which failed, however, to beguile the old 
Emperor from his support of Dara's claim to the 
succession — he seized the citadel, and isolated Shah 



2/2 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Jahan from all communication with his friends and 
adherents. At the same time he placed his sister 
Jehanara and Dara's children in close custody. On 
the other hand, Shah Jahan made an attempt to get 
his treacherous but astute son into his power ; and 
on one occasion almost succeeded in drawing him 
into a visit to the palace, where he had concealed 
several stalwart Tartar women, who were to over- 
power and strangle him at a given signal. The 
prince, however, was not to be deceived by a sudden 
outburst of paternal affection ; and if his sister 
Jehanara hated him, he had a loyal adviser and 
confidant in his younger sister, Roushanara Begum. 
Truly, the household of Shah Jahan was a divided 
one! 

It is a curious historical fact that a sovereign so 
able and so powerful should so easily have been 
dethroned, and that none of his old servants and 
ministers, though they could have little to hope from 
his successor, should have made any effort to support 
him. I suppose we must accept the explanation 
offered by Elphinstone, though it seems to me far 
from adequate ; that the Emperor's habits of indul- 



SHAH JAIIAN. 273 

gence had impaired his energy, and that, as he had 
long ceased to head his armies, the troops turned 
their eyes to the princes who led them in the field, 
and had the immediate distribution of their honours 
and rewards. It is, perhaps, worthy of remembrance 
that Aurangzib was an adept in the art of political 
intrigue ; and that his complete self-control gave him 
a signal advantage over his impetuous adversaries. 

Having secured the Emperor's person, his next 
object was to dispose of his brother Morad. The 
two princes were marching in pursuit of Dara, when 
one day Aurangzib invited Morad to a splendid 
supper, at which, waiving his well-known prejudice 
against the use of fermented liquors, he had provided 
an abundant supply of the choicest and strongest 
vintages. Some of the loveliest and most accom- 
plished Indian dancing-girls were likewise engaged 
to charm his guest by their graceful figures and 
harmonious movements. Aurangzib, as became a 
rigid Muhammadan, left the table when the reign of 
licence began, bidding his brother to drink and be 
merry. After a wild debauch, Morad, in a state of 
helpless intoxication, fell asleep upon a couch, and 



274 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

was Stripped of his arms without resistance. Re- 
turning to the scene of the revel, Aurangzib, in real 
or pretended anger, roused his bemused brother with 
, a contemptuous kick, exclaiming, " What means 
this shame, this degradation ? How accursed a thing 
it is that so great a prince as you should have 
so little command over yourself as to plunge into 
such excess ! Take away this infamous man, this 
drunkard," he said to his attendants ; " tie him hand 
and foot, and fling him into yonder room to sleep 
off his wine." He was afterwards sent, a prisoner in 
chains, to Delhi, mounted conspicuously on the 
back of an elephant ; while three other elephants, 
each carrying a person **' got up " to represent the 
prince, and all provided with the same escort, were 
despatched in different directions, that people might 
be misled as to his actual place of confinement — the 
great prison fortress of Gwalior. 

On his arrival in Delhi, Aurangzib caused him- 
self to be proclaimed emperor (August 20th, 1658), 
though he did not as yet cause his name to be 
stamped on the currency, nor was he crowned until 
the first anniversary of his accession. 



SHAH JAHAN. 275 

THE MUGHAL EMPIRE. 

During the reign of Shah Jahan, thus abruptly 
terminated by the unfiHal treachery of his sons, the 
Mughal empire in India reached its climax of pros- 
perity and power. Though sometimes engaged in 
foreign wars, Shah Jahan had preserved tranquillity 
and maintained order in his own dominions, govern- 
ing with firmness, but, on the whole, with gentleness, 
and encouraging the arts of peace. Tavernier, the 
traveller, says of him that " he reigned not so much 
as a king over his subjects as a father over his 
children " ; and his rule exhibited some of the best 
features of a paternal despotism. Thousands of 
artisans found employment in constructing and 
embellishing the splendid edifices with which he 
adorned his two capitals. As for Delhi, he rebuilt 
it on a regular plan, far surpassing the old one in 
magnificence. Three broad thoroughfares, one of 
which was brightened by a canal and rows of trees 
and lined with houses rising over an arcade of 
glittering shops, led to a spacious esplanade, in the 
centre of which, stretching along the Jumna, stood 



276 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

the fortified palace, the spacious courts, the marble 
halls, and golden domes of which have been described 
so often and in such enthusiastic terms. 

The magnificence of this monarch's court was the 
wonder of European travellers ; and Taverni^r dwells, 
with evident astonishment, on the glories of his 
peacock throne, the tail of the bird representing the 
prismatic tints of its natural plumage in rich in- 
crustations of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. He 
reports that it cost 160,500,000 livres, or i^6, 5 00,000 ; 
but this is an evident exaggeration. He speaks, 
also in glowing terms, of the rich array of courtiers, 
guards, and attendants, the pomp and pageantry 
of the imperial processions, and the sumptuous 
character of the imperial entertainments. But we 
turn from these comparatively uninteresting details 
to tell the romantic story of the Emperor's love for 
his beautiful wife, Mumtaza Zemani, "the Most 
Exalted of the Age." 

A STORY OF IMPERIAL WRONG-DOING. 

In the days of his early manhood, while residing 
with the Imperial family at Agra, Prince Jahan, 



SHAH JAIIAN. 277 

together with his brothers and the great nobles, never 
failed to attend those fete-days of the Noroze, of 
which I have already furnished a description. On 
one occasion the Emperor, Jahanger, had desired the 
ladies of the Court, who presided at the various stalls, 
to provide a stock of precious stones, which the 
nobles and the courtiers were expected to purchase. 
The Emperor himself was among the visitors, and 
proved a liberal customer. Prince Jahan, while 
making the round of the gay scene, came upon the 
stall of Aijemund Banu, daughter of the wazir, and 
wife of Semal Khan, a woman of surpassing loveliness. 
Struck by her charms, he lingered there for some 
time, and asking her what she had to sell, received 
the laughing reply that she had nothing left but 
one large diamond, the value of which was enormous, 
• — and she showed him a lump of fine transparent 
sugar-candy, resembling a diamond in shape. Keep- 
ing up the jest, he asked the price ; she rejoined, with 
a fascinating smile, that she could not part with it 
for less than a lakh of rupees, or about £12,^00. 
The Prince took her at her word, paid the money, 
and, enchanted by her beauty and address, invited 



2/8 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

her to his palace, where she remained for two or 
three days. On her return the faithless wife was 
received by her husband with bitter reproaches. 
Of these she complained to Prince Jahan, who 
immediately gave orders that he should be put to 
death by an elephant. The unfortunate husband, 
however, obtained permission to speak to the prince 
before he was led away to the place of execution, 
and humbly explained that if he had offended his 
wife by his coldness, it was because he felt unworthy 
to receive beneath his roof the fortunate fair one who 
had been honoured with the notice of the future 
Emperor. 

Jahan was much pleased with Semal Khan's 
excessive deference ; gave him a royal robe and 
the command of 5000 horse, and received into 
his seraglio the beautiful and fascinating Aijemund 
Banu, who soon made such good use of her gifts 
and graces of mind and person that she became his 
favourite wife, and acquired a very great influence 
over him. 

On the accession of Shah Jahan to the Imperial 
throne, she was graced with the title of Mumtaza 




THE TAJ MAHAL. 



[Pa^-e 279. 



SHAH JAHAN. 279 

Zemani, the " Most Exalted of the Age." For twenty- 
years they Hved together in the utmost affection, 
confidence, and fidehty, no other wife dividing with 
her the Emperor's allegiance ; and when she died, 
his grief was irrepressible. On her deathbed she 
exacted from him a double promise, — that he would 
never marry again, and that he would raise over her 
remains a tomb which should perpetuate her name 
and his love for ever. He kept both promises with 
a faithfulness and a loyalty unusual among princes. 
He took no other wife ; and he erected at Agra, on 
the bank of the river Jumna, that magnificent and 
unequalled mausoleum, the Taj Mahal, which ab- 
sorbed the labour of 20,000 men for two-and-twenty 
years, and entailed an expenditure of nearly one 
million sterling. 

Combined in this beautiful fabric are the white 
marble ot Kandahar and Jaipur, the red marble of 
Futtehpur, the jasper and lapis lazuli of Kabul, the 
diamonds of Golconda, and the precious stones of 
Ceylon. The finest specimen of Saracenic architec- 
ture in the world, it is of the most exquisite finish and 
the supremest loveliness, and, once seen, can never be 



280 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

forgotten. A recent writer describes it as a cluster 
of purely snow-white domes which nestle round a 
grand central dome, like a gigantic pearl ; and then 
all crown a building of purest, highly polished marble, 
so perfect in its proportions, so lovely in its design, 
so restful to the eye, and so simple yet complex in 
its simplicity, that it resembles rather the marble 
embodiment of a fairy dream than any work of 
human hands. Its four sides are exactly alike ; so 
that its perfection of form never varies, from what- 
ever point of view the spectator may examine it. 
Standing all alone in its transcendent loveliness, with, 
a rich Eastern garden blooming beside it, and the 
warm red sandstone walls of the inclosure washed by 
the blue waters of the sacred Jumna, it rises upon the 
eye of the traveller who approaches it for the first 
time like a poetical vision. Sir Grant Duff speaks of 
it as the one building in the world which equals, or 
it may be excels, the Parthenon of Athens. Often 
as it has been lauded in glowing panegyrics, no one, 
he asserts, as yet has done it justice ; and we may 
wait for centuries for a worthy description, since Mr. 
Ruskin has failed to visit it and write of it, as he has 



SHAH JAHAN. 28 1 

written of St. Mark's at Venice, and the Campanile 
at Florence. 

Shah Jahan was a great builder. At Delhi he 
raised the Jama Masjul or Great Mosque ; and the 
Palace, which occupied a site 3200 feet by 1600 feet, 
with several magnificent structures in marble and 
fine stones. A deeply recessed gateway leads into 
a lofty vaulted hall of stately proportions ; and the 
Dirvan-i-khas, or Court of Private Audience, is a 
masterpiece of poetic design and superb execu- 
tion. 

He built at Agra another beautiful and stately 
edifice, the Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque. It is 
situated within the precincts of Akbar's battlemented 
fort ; a circumstance which led Bishop Heber to 
characterise the vast pile as a fortress built by giants 
and finished by jewellers. Its dimensions are 
spacious, and its mass or bulk is considerable ; for 
the airy fabric springs from an artificial terrace, which 
raises it conspicuously above the surrounding buildings. 
Its principal charm is in its court, or quadrangle, 
which, from the pavement to the top of the loftiest 
dome, is wholly composed of white marble. So is the 



282 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

Mosque proper, both internally and externally ; and, 
with the exception of a text from the Koran, lettered 
in black marble and inlaid as a frieze, it has no other 
ornament than the lines of its own graceful archi- 
tecture. Seven open passages or corridors, each 
consisting of a rich marble arcade with arched roof, 
penetrate into the interior, which is adapted to hold 
six hundred worshippers, as may be seen from the 
number of spaces or stations marked out on the 
marble floor. 

The erection of the Moti Masjid was Shah Jahan's 
principal occupation during the last nine years of his 
life, which he spent in a kind of gilded captivity, 
attended affectionately by his daughter Jehanara. 
He died, a prisoner, in the palace at Agra, in 1666, 
aged seventy-five. 

" The perishable pilgrim," as his daughter Jehanara 
describes herself, survived him for many years, and 
before her death was reconciled to her imperial 
brother, Aurangzib. She lies buried at Delhi in a 
sarcophagus of white marble, which is richly carved 
with flowers and incrusted with gems ; while in the 
centre blooms a patch of fresh green turf, in com- 



SHAH JAHAN. 283 

pliance with the direction contained in her last dying 

utterance : — 

" Let no one desecrate my tomb with any other 
things than flowers and grass, since these are fitted 
for the resting-place of a holy spirit." 



19 



CHAPTER VI. 

AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR, "THE CONQUEROR OF 
THE UNIVERSE." 

TTTITH the strange Oriental fancy for sonorous 
titles, Aurangzib caused himself to be pro- 
claimed Emperor in 1658, under the assumed name 
of Aiamgir, the Conqueror of the Universe. His 
long, and in some respects brilliant, reign extended 
over nine-and-forty years ; but in spite of its early 
successes, and its external pomp and pageantry, it 
marked the commencement and the rapid progress 
of the decline of the great Mughal empire, while its 
close was darkened with ominous shadows and 
gloomy portents of a disastrous future. 

That poetical justice which we all of us delight to 
see exercised in human affairs fell heavily upon the 
last of " the Great Moguls " ; and his history affords 
a striking illustration of the Nemesis which even in 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 285 

this world frequently overtakes the evil-doer. A 
rebellious and disloyal son, a treacherous and cruel 
brother, he died amid the intrigues, the mutinies, and 
jealousies of his own children ; in constant dread lest 
he should experience at their hands the fate his 
father had met at his, and racked in his last hours 
by agonies of terror and remorse, 

A TALE OF FRATRICIDE. 

His first care on his usurpation of the throne was 
to disembarrass himself of all possible competitors ; 
and as soon as he had made himself secure at Delhi, 
he set out in pursuit of his brother Dara. 

But when he had got as far as the river Satlaj 
— since famous in Anglo-Indian history — he learned 
that Dara had escaped into Sind, while his other 
brother, Shuja, with 25,000 horse and a large train 
of artillery, was rapidly moving up from Bengal. 
Thereupon he returned to Delhi, and struck eastward 
to meet this new antagonist. 

The armies of the two brothers came into collision 
at a place called Cajwa, on the road to Allahabad. 
For three days they carried on an artillery duel, each 



286 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

being unwilling to come to close quarters, — but on 
the fourth day (Jan. 6th, 1659), they joined issue. 
There was nothing in the circumstances of the battle 
to distinguish it from other battles. It ended in a 
victory for Aurangzib, who captured one hundred 
and fourteen pieces of cannon and many elephants. 
Shuja retired to Bengal ; and Aurangzib was free for 
the time to attend to the movements of Dara, who 
had entered Guzarat, and with the assistance of its 
governor had occupied the whole province. He was 
posted on the hills near Ajmere, with an army of thirty 
thousand men and thirty or forty guns, when he was 
suddenly attacked by his brother's forces and again 
defeated, — defeated so utterly that it was with diffi- 
culty he escaped from the lost field, attended by a 
few faithful followers. 

After eight days and nights of almost incessant 
wandering, — exhausted by the excessive heat, and 
harassed by the attacks of marauders, who stripped 
or murdered every man of his little company who 
fell into the rear, — Dara reached the neighbourhood 
of Ahmedabad. Here he was met by the celebrated 
traveller, Bernier, who has left on record a pathetic 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 287 

account of the unfortunate prince's sufferings. His 
wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, had 
received a severe wound, and as he had no physician 
in his retinue he persuaded Bernier to remain with 
them for three days. The fourth brought them 
within a day's march of Ahmedabad, where he hoped 
to find a secure asylum. They slept that night in 
a caravanserai, where the accommodation was so 
limited that nothing but a screen of canvas separated 
Bernier from the princesses of Dara's family. 

At dawn, when they were preparing for what they 
believed would be their last day's journey, the sad 
intelligence came that the gates of Ahmedabad had 
been shut against them, and that their sole chance of 
safety lay in immediate flight. Bernier tells us that 
he first knew of this stroke of misfortune through 
the cries and lamentations of the women ; and that 
soon afterwards Dara came forth, pale with anxiety 
and alarm. His attendants received him in silence 
and with downcast looks, — Orientals are quick to 
abandon a master whom they think unlucky, — and the 
traveller could not refrain from tears as he saw the 
noble and ill-fated prince go to each in turn, appealing 



288 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

for support, but conscious all the while that the 
appeal was made in vain. 

Bernier took leave of him with regret, and with 
melancholy anticipations, which were only too soon 
fulfilled. The fugitive made his way into the small 
territory of Jun, on the eastern frontier of Sind, the 
chief of which, an Afghan, had received many favours 
at his hands, but now thought only of betraying him. 
Here his devoted wife died in his arms. This last 
misfortune seems to have broken the prince's spirit, 
With a great cry of anguish he exclaimed that all 
his past troubles were nothing, but that now, indeed, 
he was alone upon the earth ! Tearing off his costly 
robe and flinging on the ground his imperial turban, 
he put on a mean habit, and threw himself down by 
the side of the dead body. In the evening Gul 
Muhammad, a faithful follower, joined him with fifty 
horse. Dara welcomed him warmly. Ordering his 
wife's body to be embalmed, Dara entreated Gul 
Muhammad, as a last favour, to convey it to Lahore, 
that it might rest in the tomb of her ancestors. 
" Aurangzib himself," said the unhappy prince, " will 
not refuse a sepulchre to the family of Dara." 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 289 

As soon as the period of mourning permitted, 
he set out again on the march ; but before he had 
traversed many miles he and his son were overtaken, 
made prisoners, and carried to Aurangzib at 
Delhi (July 26th, 1659). The latter's vindictiveness 
prevailed over his prudence, and he caused his 
brother, loaded with chains, to be mounted on a 
wretched elephant, without the usual trappings, and 
conducted through the ^principal streets of the capital. 
But to see the lawful heir to the throne — a prince 
so noble and generous-minded — reduced to such a 
miserable plight, greatly moved the feelings of the 
people ; and the wave of compassion and indignation 
which swept through the city seemed to threaten 
an insurrection, so that Bernier armed himself, and 
went out into the street prepared for any emergency. 
The multitude, however, refrained from violence, and 
Dara was led away to a prison in Old Delhi. He 
was afterwards brought to trial before a packed 
tribunal on a charge of apostasy from Islam ; was 
found guilty, and sentenced to death. The emperor, 
with professed, perhaps with real reluctance — for he 
cannot have been wholly insensible to the claims of 



290 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

kindred, though his ambition prevailed over his 
feelings— confirmed the sentence, the execution of 
which was entrusted to one of Dara's personal 
enemies. 

When the executioners made their appearance. 
Dara and his son were preparing some lentils, the 
only food which they allowed themselves, from fear 
of poison, to touch. The prince snatched up a small 
knife, and defended himself with his usual courage 
until overpowered by numbers. His body was after- 
wards thrown upon an elephant, and exhibited to the 
populace ; his head cut off and carried to Aurangzib, 
who commanded it to be placed on a dish, and having 
sent for water, washed it clean, and wiped it with a 
handkerchief Having satisfied himself that it was 
indeed his brother's head, he began to weep, and 
exclaiming, " O unfortunate man ! " ordered that it 
should be interred in the tomb of Humayun. 

Shuja was the next victim among the brothers. 
Aurangzib sent against him his principal general, 
who drove the ill-fated chief from place to place, 
until at last he fled into Aracan. His later history 
is shrouded in obscurity ; but it is said that, having 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 29 1 

headed an insurrection against the ruler of Aracan, 
he perished in the attempt. This at least is certain, 
that he and his family were never again heard of. 
Thus Fortune had so far made herself an accomplice 
of Aurangzib in his ambitious designs, that she had 
removed from his path all possible rivals, except 
Morad and his son, and two sons of Dara — namely, 
Soleiman Shukoh and Sepehr Shukoh, But these 
were in safe custody at Gwalior, and their removal 
was an easy matter. Morad was put to death for 
the alleged murder of a man, committed during his 
government of Guzarat. The others all died within 
a few weeks, — of natural causes, said Aurangzib ; 
of poison, said the voice of popular report. Such 
wholesale fratricide is uncommon even in the history 
of Oriental princes. 

NOT UNWORTHY TO REIGN. 

Apart from these crimes, Aurangzib showed 
himself worthy to reign by his strength of will and 
iron resolution. Soon after the fifth anniversary of 
his accession, he was seized with a violent illness, 
and at one time a fatal termination seemed more 



292 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

than probable. Even after its worst severity had 
subsided, he remained in a dangerously weak con- 
dition, and was almost deprived of the faculty of 
speech. With startling rapidity intrigues developed 
on every side. The partisans of Shah Jehan renewed 
their activity ; while among the emperor's own ad- 
herents two factions were speedily formed, one bent 
on securing the succession for his second son, 
Moazzim, and the other for his third son, Azam. 
In these threatening circumstances the sick Sultan 
displayed a composure and an intrepidity which 
those who most condemn his ambition, his cruelty, 
and his craft must nevertheless admire. On the 
fifth day of his illness, though shaken and tremulous, 
he caused himself to be raised up, and received the 
homage of his principal courtiers ; and, on a subse- 
quent occasion, when a fainting-fit had given rise to 
a report of his death, he summoned two or three 
of his principal nobles to his bedside ; and as the 
paralysis which had affected his tongue still troubled 
him, wrote, in their presence, an order to his sister to 
send him his great seal, which he thenceforward kept 
beside his pillow that it might not be used without 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 293 

his knowledge. This strenuous self-assertion had as 
much effect in suppressing disturbances as the 
prospect of his early restoration to health (1662). 
As soon as he was able to travel he hastened to 
Kashmir, where, in the delightful air and amidst the 
beautiful scenery of the Happy Valley, he rapidly 
regained his strength. And he needed all his bodily 
vigour and intellectual energy to cope with a new 
and most formidable enemy, whose appearance in the 
Deccan rang the knell of the great Mughal empire. 

THE STORY OF SIVAJI. 

A strip of country lying between the mountain 
range of the Western Ghauts and the sea was 
inhabited by a race of people known to our fore- 
fathers as the Mahrattas, but more properly called 
the Marathis. 

They had been for centuries an agricultural 
population, who held the ways of traders in con- 
tempt ; hereditary marauders, who, in the interval 
between seed-time and harvest, broke through the 
mountain-passes, descended into the fertile lowlands, 
and returned laden with plunder — like the Border-clans 



294 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

of mediaeval Scotland. Clothed in short drawers half 
down the thigh, a turban, and sometimes a cotton 
frock, with a cloth waistband, which also answered 
the purpose of a shawl ; capable of marching thirty 
or forty miles a day for twenty or thirty days con- 
secutively — armed with matchlock, sword, and shield, 
skilful marksmen, and intrepid in hand-to-hand com- 
bats, thoroughly acquainted with every precipice, 
pass, ravine, and jungle among their native moun- 
tains, the Marathis were unequalled " for all purposes 
of predatory and guerilla warfare." The troopers in 
endurance and courage were hardly inferior to the 
footmen ; and, indeed, " any one who has seen the 
long easy seat of the Marathi horsemen, the perfect 
skill and grace with which they handle sword, shield, 
or spear, the comfort and convenience of their 
saddles and accoutrements, and the sharp bitting of 
their active horses, will acknowledge them to be, to 
all appearance, the most wiry, workmanlike-looking 
cavalry in the world." 

About 1634 one of these stalwart Marathi warriors 
made for himself a reputation in Southern India. 
He lent his sword to the two independent Muham- 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 295 

madan states of Ahmednagar and Bijapur ; and 
transmitted to his son a military fief and the 
leadership of a band of loyal and daring partisans. 
This son, Sivaji, was one of the most extraordinary 
men whom India has produced. His career was 
one long breathless series of remarkable adventures. 
Even in his early years he showed an audacious 
and enterprising spirit, which was kindled to fever 
heat by the old ballads of his country. Before he 
was sixteen he had been suspected of sharing in 
several wild freebooting forays. He could neither 
read nor write ; but he was a splendid shot with 
gun and bow, and rode like one to the manner born. 
Three items among his equipment deserve particular 
notice. The first, says Sir Richard Temple, is what 
is called " the tiger's claw," an iron instrument, 
resembling in shape the claw of a tiger, with three 
very sharp points, which could be fastened inside 
the palm of the wearer, and so concealed from 
observation. The second item was his sword 
Bharvani — so called from a Hindu goddess, but a 
fine bit of tempered steel, wrought in Genoa. And 
the third was a coat of mail, which he generally 



296 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

wore under a dress of cotton, or, in summer, of 
muslin; so that, to all appearance, he was a mild- 
mannered, peaceable Hindu ; while, in reality, under 
the cotton folds was hidden the famous sword — 
which was to the Marathis what King Arthur's 
sword Excalibar was to the warriors of romance 
— and in the strong sinewy hand lay the tiger's 
claw. ^ 

He was about eighteen when the idea of his 
mission in life dawned upon him — the deliverance 
of the Hindu peoples of Southern India from the 
yoke of the " Great Moguls." Having gathered about 
him, by his repute for courage and sagacity, a large 
body of fighting-men, he surprised, captured, and 
plundered several little forts in Bijapur. The king 
of that country rose in his wrath, and demanded 
of his nobles what should be done against the inso- 
lent marauder. Then a Muhammadan commander, 
named Afzal Khan, undertook, if he were allowed 
an army of two thousand horse and five thousand 
foot, with some guns, to hunt down this " mountain- 
cat," and within two months bring him into the 
king's presence in an iron cage. His offer was 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 297 

accepted, and he set out on his self-enterprise, in 
total ignorance of the difficulty and danger it 

involved. 

On arriving in the neighbourhood of Sivaji's 
fortress, he was met by some of his envoys, in the 
meanest possible attire, who represented that their 
master was one of the humblest of men, with the 
gratefullest thoughts possible towards the King of 
Bijapur, and that he would rejoice to receive Afzal 
Khan in his fort on any morning. The Muham- 
madan general sent word in reply that he should 
not object to pay a visit to Sivaji, but that, owing 
to the steepness of the hills and the density of the 
forest, he did not see how it was to be managed. 
Sivaji at once offered to clear a road for his visitor's 
convenience ; and his followers speedily carried it 
over the hills and through the forest to Partabghar, 
where a wide open area was provided for the Muham- 
madan camp. To all appearance nothing could be 
more friendly ; but the Muhammadans did not 
observe that this convenient site was enclosed by 
rocky hills and labyrinthine woods, where Sivaji's 
best marksmen lay in ambush. 



298 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

The next proceeding on the part of the "mountain- 
cat " was to persuade Afzal Khan, who seems to 
have been singularly wanting in prudence, to meet 
him outside the gate of Partabghar, with a single 
attendant At the last moment Sivaji hacl some 
qualms of conscience, and apparently shrank from 
the ill deed for which he had made such elaborate 
preparations. So he made his way to a little shrine 
on the summit of a neighbouring hill, where he had 
arranged to meet his mother. To her he confided 
his hesitation. *' Shall I kill this man," he inquired 
of her, " as I have planned ? And when I have 
killed him, shall I order my men in the woods to 
fire upon the Muhammadan camp?" To both 
questions she answered in the affirmative. " In this 
very temple," she said, " I have consulted the goddess 
Siva — after whom, as you know, you were named — 
and she has commanded me to take care that no 
single Muhammadan should escape alive. Therefore, 
my son, act resolutely as I have advised you, and 
my blessing shall go with you." 

In the morning Afzal Khan left his camp, and 
repaired to the appointed rendezvous, whither, at the 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 299 

same time, Sivaji advanced from his fort. As he 
crept along, with slow and infirm gait, and downcast 
look, the Muhammadans observed to one another, 
" What a meek and humble person is this Marathi 
chief of whom we have heard so much ! " Accord- 
ing to agreement, he had but a single attendant, 
Tannaji, his kinsman, a man on whose bravery and 
fidelity he could always rely. As he drew near, the 
Muhammadan general spoke the usual words of 
greeting, and held out his arms to embrace him. 
Sivaji bowed his head, drew close up to his victim, 
and with " the tiger's claw " dug into his entrails. 
Then out came his dagger, followed by a desperate 
stab ; and then out came his sword, and Afzal Khan 
lay dead upon the ground, together with his attendant, 
whom Tannaji had in the meantime despatched. 
At this moment a signal gun blazed from the fort, 
and immediately the surrounding forest kindled into 
sheets of flame, as the Marathi marksmen poured in 
a storm of bullets upon the surprised Muhammadans, 
very few of whom escaped to tell the story of the 
disaster that had befallen their army. Then Sivaji 

descended from his mountain-eyrie, overran the whole 
20 



300 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

country near the Ghats, and entered upon a guerilla 
warfare against the king of Bijapur ; until, in 1662, he 
extorted from him the cession of a territory along the 
sea-coast, which enabled him to raise and maintain a 
predatory force of 7000 horsemen and 50,000 foot. 

FURTHER EXPLOITS OF SIVAJl. 

The cause of the first rupture between Sivaji and 
the Mughals is not known ; but after he had made 
peace with Bijapur, we find him ravaging the imperial 
dominions as far as Aurangabad. Aurangzib sent 
an army against him under Shayista Khan, who 
drove him out of the field, and advanced to Puna, 
within twelve miles of Singhar, a strong hill-fort to 
which Sivaji had retired. The Khan took every pre- 
caution to guard against surprise. No Marathi was 
allowed to enter the town, even singly ; and with his 
soldiers posted all around him, he flattered himself that 
he was as secure as if he were in Agra or Delhi. The 
house in which he had taken up his residence 
happened, however, to have been occupied by Sivaji 
in his earlier years ; and this circumstance suggested 
to him an exploit of the most daring character. 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 301 

Leaving SInghar one evening after dark, and posting 
small bodies of troops along the road to Puna, he 
and twenty-five Marathis, whom he had selected to 
accompany him, contrived to slip into the town as 
part of a wedding procession, with the connivance of 
its conductor. Proceeding direct to the house, he 
entered by the rear before any person took the alarm, 
and so completely surprised the Khan that he had 
barely time to escape from his bedchamber, and lost 
two fingers by a blow from a sword as he was lower- 
ing himself from a window into the court below. 
His son and most of his attendants were cut to 
pieces. Sivaji retreated without encountering any 
opposition ; and gathering up his posts on the way, 
ascended to Singhar amidst a blaze of torches which 
made known his success to every part of the Mughal 
camp. 

Aurangzib next sent his son. Prince Moazzim, with 
one of his best guards, against this redoubtable 
freebooter ; but by numerous rapid movements he 
deceived them as to his whereabouts, and, while they 
were searching for him among the hills, he suddenly 
swooped down on the rich commercial town and port 



302 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

i 

of Surat. Resistance was impossible. The governor 
retired to the fort, the English and Dutch merchants 
to their factories ; while the Marathis plundered the 
place at leisure for six days, and finally carried off a 
booty valued at one million sterling. The Emperor 
now was thoroughly roused ; and an overwhelming 
force, under Raja Jei Sing, was put into the field. 
Sivaji was beaten back from point to point, in spite 
of his desperate courage ; and when his chief strong- 
hold, Singhar, was surrounded, he repaired to the 
Mughal camp and made his submission. He was 
received with great distinction ; and having taken a 
formal oath of allegiance and fidelity, was allowed 
to retain twenty out of his thirty-two forts and the 
territory attaching to them as a jagir or fief from 
the Emperor. At the same time his son, Sambaji, a 
boy of five years old, received the rank of a com- 
mander of five thousand horse. Further, Sivaji was 
to be entitled to a sort of percentage on the revenue 
of each district under the King of Bijapur ; and this 
grant, I may add, was the foundation of the ill-defined 
claims of the Marathis, which in later times afforded 
them such constant pretexts for encroachments upon 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 3^3 

foreign territories. Sivaji then joined the imperial 
army with two thousand cavalry and eight thousand 
infantry ; and the whole body invaded Bijapur (1665). 

In this campaign the "mountain-cat's" services 
were so brilliant that Aurangzib addressed to him 
two complimentary letters, promising him advance- 
ment, and inviting him to court, with an assurance 
that he should be at liberty to return to the Deccan. 
Accordingly he repaired to Delhi. Had Aurangzib 
exercised his usual craft, and conciliated the chief by 
liberal treatment, he would have converted a formid- 
able enemy into a loyal and zealous servant. But 
his religious and personal prejudices were too strong 
for his prudence. He hated and despised the un- 
lettered freebooter who had insulted his religion and 
his imperial dignity ; and heaped slights and insults 
upon him, which were deeply resented. Finding that 
guards were stationed round his residence, and that 
he was virtually a prisoner, he resolved to effect 
his escape. 

Feigning illness, he took to his bed, gained over 
some of the Hindu physicians who were allowed to 
attend him, and through their instrumentality con- 



304 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

veyed his instructions to his friends without. He 
was in the habit of receiving large baskets of fruits 
and flowers every day, and when the guards had 
grown accustomed to their passage, and ceased to 
inspect them, he concealed himself in one and his 
son in another, and both were carried out unsuspected 
through the line of sentinels. His bed was occupied 
by a servant, and it was some time before he was 
discovered to be missing. Outside the walls of the 
city he found the faithful Tannaji and some trusty 
followers ; and, assuming the dress of a Hindu 
religious mendicant, he proceeded, by the least fre- 
quented route, into the Deccan ; and after long 
wanderings and many adventures reached his fortress 
of Raighar, nine months after his escape from Delhi 
(December 1666). 

DEATH OF SIVAJI. 

It was at this time that the power and prosperity 
of Aurangzib attained their zenith. Peace for a while 
prevailed throughout his extended dominions ; to 
which his governor of Kashmir had just added Little 
Tibet, and his viceroy of Bengal the fertile country 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 305 

of Chittagong. The neighbouring potentates took 
every opportunity of paying him marks of their high 
respect. Embassies arrived at his court from the 
Shiref of Mecca and several other princes of Arabia, 
from the King of Abyssinia, from the King of Persia, 
from the Khan of the Uzbeks. But, as is usual in 
this world, there was a fly in the ointment — a cloud 
on the horizon — that aniari aliquid which poisons 
every human cup. Sivaji had resumed his activity, 
and gained so many successes in the Deccan that the 
mighty sovereign of Delhi was glad to make peace on 
terms which almost compromised his imperial dignity. 
A considerable portion of territory was restored to 
him, and a new jagir granted in Berar. His title 
of Raja, which he had assumed unbidden, was also 
formally confirmed. 

Aurangzib, however, never forgot or forgave ; and 
he manoeuvred secretly to get Sivaji again into his 
power. He directed his son. Prince Moazzim, and his 
general, Jeswant Sing, who were commanding in the 
Deccan, to pretend disaffection, and feign a strong 
desire to conclude a separate alliance with the great 
Marathi chief. But Sivaji was not to be deceived, 



306 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT, 

and held aloof from every snare. He had lost no- 
thing of his audacity. On one occasion, disguised as a 
peasant, he waited on Prince Moazzim as he passed 
through a village near Burhampur and presented him 
with a dish of cream. So appetising was its appear- 
ance that the Prince ordered it to be served up at 
his own table ; and lo, within it, was a note inclosed 
in wax, in which Sivaji explained that curiosity had 
induced him to view the mighty prince who had con- 
descended to become his antagonist in the lists of 
fame. By liberal bribes and presents he won the 
good will of the Mughal generals ; and they actually 
became his willing accomplices in deceiving the 
Emperor. The latter, however, in his turn, detected 
the imposture ; and then issued stringent commands 
for the capture of his Marathi adversary, which 
necessarily led to a renewal of hostilities. 

By a night attack of almost incredible daring the 
mountain-cat recovered his fortress-rock of Singhar. 
Then, for the second time, he plundered Surat. With 
fire and sword he broke into Khandesh ; and equip- 
ping a fleet of eighty vessels, sailed along the 
Malabar coast, and made a descent upon Jinjera. 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 307 

His constant good fortune influenced his ambition; 
and having defeated the Mughal army in a great 
pitched battle, in 1672, he caused himself to be 
ctowned king after the manner of a Mughal corona- 
tion, copying every detail, even to being weighed 
against gold and silver, and distributing rich presents 
to his officers and attendants. About two years later 
he made an incursion into Golconda, Vvdth a large 
army, and exacted a heavy ransom from its people. 
Next he appeared in the Karnatic, capturing some 
of its strongest places and garrisoning them with his 
own troops. But his extraordinary career was cut 
short by a sudden illness, which terminated fatally on 
April 5th, 1680, when he was in the fifty-third year 
of his age. He died at his great fortress of Raighar, 
where he had accumulated the riches of half India — 
" treasures in Spanish dollars, sequins, and the coins 
from all Southern Europe and all Asia." 

Aurangzib, though he heard with satisfaction of the 
death of his adversary, paid a generous tribute to his 
abilities. " He was a good captain," he said, " and 
the only one who has had the magnanimity to raise 
a new kingdom while I have been endeavouring to 



308 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

destroy the ancient sovereignties of India. My 
armies have been employed against him for nineteen 
years, and nevertheless his power has always been 
increasing. He was eminently fitted by nature for 
the work he had to do, the revival of Hinduism and 
the foundation of a native kingdom ; for to courage 
and capacity in the field he added a singular sagacity 
and foresight in the council." A born ruler, he 
possessed that personal magnetism w^hich bade 
masses of men to dare everything for their chosen 
leader. His vigour and powers of endurance and 
action were such as to call forth the admiration even 
of his hardy subjects, who loved to speak of him as 
when, mounted on a white horse and going at full 
gallop, he tossed grains of rice into the animal's 
mouth that it might feed without delaying its course. 
His contempt of danger led him to undertake the 
most hazardous enterprises. Thus he stole into 
Bombay in disguise, in order to climb through a 
natural tunnel of rock on Malabar hill, which is sup- 
posed to purge from sin all who effect its passage. 
He was passionately fond of music ; and would incur 
the greatest risks in entering the strong places of his 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 309 

enemies to listen to the stirring stories of the achieve- 
ments of the Hindu gods as sung in the Kuthas at 
the numerous Hindu festivals. 

Though these pages are intended to chronicle the 
deeds of the great Muhammadan sultans and khalifs, 
I have been unable to resist the temptation of telling 
at some length the tale of a famous Hindu chief ; and 
I believe the reader will agree that its romantic 
interest justifies its introduction, or at all events 
excuses it 

LAST YEARS OF AURANGZIB. 

Meanwhile, at the head of the Grand Army of the 
Empire, the indefatigable Aurangzib endeavoured to 
accomplish the reduction of the Deccan. It is im- 
possible not to admire the exhaustless energy and 
unfailing patience with which the aged sovereign 
made head against every difficulty — against the cease- 
less efforts of his external enemies, as well as against 
the domestic treachery which, as he felt, was but a 
well-deserved retribution for his own conduct towards 
Shah Jahan. He was in his sixty-fifth year when he 
first crossed the Nerbudda to enter upon this labo- 



3IO WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

rious and protracted enterprise ; he was in his eighty- 
first when he retired from the field, having won 
numerous victories and captured many forts, but 
having so exhausted the strength and vitaHty of the 
empire that it was shaken to its foundations. His 
last campaign closed with an inglorious retreat to 
Ahmednagar, and this was not accomplished without 
severe loss, so dispirited were his troops and so 
audacious their assailants. " All hurried on in dis- 
order and dejection, deafened with the incessant 
firing kept up by the marksmen, alarmed by the shouts 
and charges of the lancers, and every moment 
expecting a general attack to complete their disorder 
and destruction. Such, indeed, was the fate of a 
portion of the army ; and it is a subject of pious 
exultation to the Mussulman historian, that the 
emperor himself escaped falling into the hands of 
the enemies whom he had once so much despised." 

His health had, of late, given way. Not only did 
he feel the weight of years, but he was conscious of 
the dangers which beset the empire, and continually 
haunted by the apprehension that his sons would 
inflict upon him the same fate which he had inflicted 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 3II 

upon his father. Prince Moazzim having proposed 
some administrative changes to reHeve him of some 
of his more onerous duties, he immediately suspected 
him of a design to seize upon the government. 
Receiving a letter from Prince Azam, in which he 
requested permission to return to Ahmednagar, as the 
air of Guzarat disagreed with his health, he ex- 
claimed, "That is the very excuse I made to Shah 
Jahan," — adding : " No air is so unwholesome as 
the fumes of ambition." His youngest and favourite 
son. Prince Cambakhsh, he sent away to Bijapur, lest 
he should become the rallying-point of any rebellious 
faction. 

In a mood of great despondency he awaited the 
approach of that inevitable hour which he felt to 
be near at hand. The mingled emotions which pos- 
sessed him are apparent in the letter which he wrote, 
or dictated, to his son Azam : — " I came a stranger 
into the world, and as a stranger I leave it. I know 
nothing of myself — what I am, or for what I am 
destined : the brief moments of my enjoyment of 
power have left only sorrow behind them. I brought 
nothing into the world, and, except the infirmities 



312 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

of humanity, I carry nothing out Though I have 
a strong faith in the mercy and goodness of God, 
yet when I think of my past deeds I am not without 
fear. But come what may, I have launched my vessel 
on the waves, . . , Farewell ! Farewell ! " Surely 
words of greater pathos were never wrung from the 
lips of dying emperor ! Surely never was the vanity 
of the world's ambitions more strikingly exposed ! 

To Prince Cambakhsh he wrote in a similar strain, 
but intercalated among his confessions some maxims 
of serious wisdom. " Your courtiers," he says, " how- 
ever deceitful, must not be ill-treated ; you must gain 
your objects by gentleness and art. . . . Wherever 
I look I see nothing but the Divinity. ... I have 
committed numerous crimes, and I know not what 
may be my punishment. . . . The agonies of death 
are coming upon me fast. ... I am going : whatever 
of good or evil I have done, was done for you." 

He died on the 2ist of February, 1707, in the 
eighty-ninth year of his age and the fiftieth of his 
reign. By a will found under his pillow it appeared 
that he wished Moazzim to be recognised as Emperor, 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 313 

but that he and Azam should divide between them 
the imperial territories ; the former taking the northern 
and eastern provinces, with Delhi as his capital ; and 
the latter, all the country to the south and south- 
west, including most of the Deccan, with Agra as his 
capital The kingdoms of Golconda and Bijapur he 
assigned to Cambakhsh. In another will he left 
minute directions for his funeral, which he ordered 
to be conducted on the simplest scale, limiting the 
expense to four rupees and a half — a sum which 
he had saved from the price of some caps made and 
sold by him. Eight hundred and five rupees, which 
he had earned by transcripts of the Koran, he left 
for distribution among the poor. His last commands 
were scrupulously obeyed, and his remains interred 
in a plain wooden tomb at Ranzah, the " Place of 
Graves," near EUora. 

CHARACTER OF AURANGZIB. 

" Of all the dynasty of Timur," says the historian, 
Khafi Khan, " indeed, of all the kings of Delhi, none 
since the time of Secander Lodi ever appeared so 
distinguished in point of devotion, austerity, and 



314 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

justice ; and in courage, patience, and sound judgment 
he was unequalled. But as from reverence to the 
injunctions of the Divine Law he did not inflict 
punishment, and as without punishment no com- 
munity can be kept in order — in consequence, also, 
of the dissensions arising from rivalry among his 
nobles — every plan and design which he formed came 
to little good, and every enterprise drew into delay 
and never attained its object. Though he had lived 
ninety years, none of his five senses were at all 
impaired ; except his hearing in a small degree, but 
not so that others could perceive it." 

It has justly been said that he endeavoured to lead 
the life of a model Muhammadan emperor, and in 
many respects he succeeded. He was easy of access, 
a strict dispenser of justice, a firm administrator. 
By the pomp and splendour of his public appear- 
ances he maintained the imperial dignity ; though in 
private his habits were remarkable for their simplicity. 
In the discharge of the observances of his religion 
he was exact and unquestionably sincere ; he was 
diligent in business, with a vigilant eye supervising 
every detail of the government of his vast empire. 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 315 

Further, he was an accompHshed scholar, with a 
fine taste for poetry, and an elegant and prolific 
letter-writer. But the deposition of his father and the 
murder of his brothers left ineffaceable stains upon 
his private life ; while his public policy was vitiated 
by the religious intolerance, which roused against the 
empire the sleepless hatred of a host of enemies. 
Not that Aurangzib was prone to acts of cruelty or 
oppression ; he neither took the lives nor confiscated 
the property of his Hindu subjects ; but he irritated 
them by his " systematic discouragements." He ex- 
cluded them from office ; he branded them by a 
special tax ; he prohibited their fairs and festivals ; 
he insulted their temples ; and abolished every 
practice or custom that seemed in any way to foster 
or countenance their superstition. 

Some hundreds of the great Emperor's letters have 
been preserved ; and prove that he was gifted with 
no small literary ability, while on the peculiarities of 
his character they throw a vivid light. Generally 
some poetical character is introduced, or a verse from 
the Koran. Occasionally the tone is familiar, and 
even humorous, when addressed to his sons. One, 

21 



3l6 WARRIORS OF THE CRESCENT. 

written after he was eighty, ends with a number of 
burlesque verses, of two or three words to the Hne, 
embodying comical descriptions of the pursuits of 
the principal people about his court. 

He delighted, as I have said, in the parade of 
royalty upon public occasions ; and the magnificence 
of the Fanakbagh, or Palace of Pleasures, which he 
erected at Ahmednagar, as a memorial of his con- 
quest of the Deccan, — the extensive accommodation 
of the royal tents, their canvas walls enclosing an 
area of nearly three-quarters of a mile in circum- 
ference, — the various establishments for preparing 
betel and sweetmeats, cooling water with saltpetre, 
and preparing fruit in good condition for the imperial 
table — the host of attendants and officials which he 
maintained — the splendid decorations of his palaces, 
— all indicate the keen sense which he entertained 
of the necessity of keeping up the royal dignity. I 
have referred to his diligence in the conduct of state 
business. " All men," he was accustomed to say, 
" have a natural inclination to a long, easy, and 
careless life, and do not need to be advised to lay 
aside work and anxiety : besides, our wives who lie 



AURANGZIB OR ALAMGIR. 317 

in our bosoms too often encourage us in the same 
direction. But there are times and conjunctures of 
such critical importance that a king ought to hazard 
his Hfe for his subjects." 

The Italian traveller, Gemelli Carreri, who visited 
the imperial court when Aurangzib was nearly eighty, 
describes him as of low stature, slender, and bowed 
at the shoulders, with a long nose and a round beard, 
the silvery whiteness ,of which contrasted with his 
olive skin. He was dressed in plain white muslin, 
with a single but very large emerald in his turban. 
Standing in the middle of his omrahs, and leaning on 
a staff, he received petitions from all who chose to 
present them, read them without the help of glasses, 
endorsed them with his own hand ; and seemed, by 
his cheerfulness of aspect, to be pleased with the 
employment. 

Such was Aurangzib, the Last of " the Great 
Moguls." 



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'HE HOUSEHOLD HIS- 
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